How not to buy quite so many books (for bookaholics)

Recently I came to a monumental conclusion regarding the buying books. Perhaps I should refine that to say, I came to a monumental conclusion regarding my own personal buying of books. I have oodles of books on my shelf. They fall into the following categories:

• those that I have read
• those I haven't read
• those I hope to read, and 
• those I have totally forgotten about. 

Suffice to say, there would be a great number in the latter two categories!

I used to berate my husband for buying so many books. He stopped. Then we started buying books "for the children"! Somehow though, everything changed. The children grew up, we had more time on our hands so we started.... you know.... buying our own books!

If you're not a bookaholic, perhaps I should try and explain how it all happens.... You go into a book shop, and there are books everywhere on every kind of possible topic you could ever consider. The colours, covers, stories and topics pull you towards them. Your senses are totally overloaded with fabulous and endless possibilities of books. You tell yourself you won't buy anything.... but that really is just to keep yourself in the shop. You don't want to leave, you just want to read.... more than anything! There are so many books to choose from. Where to start? And then you're engrossed in one book, then another.... And of course you end up walking out with 3 or 4 books (or more!). You might read one straight away and then put the others away, to read later, when you have finished that pile of books you have you haven't read yet!

Does this sound familiar?

So, what is my monumental decision? For now, I have decided (for fiction books at least) I am going to stick to ebooks or borrow from my local library. If I think a book is worth passing on or having in my hard copy library I'll buy it. If not, well I'll have an ebook that I can either keep or delete and I will have saved myself some money and have plenty of space for books I really care about.

(The only problem is .... what to do about all the books on my shelves I haven't read?!!)

Review: David and the Old Man by William Zemba

David Zemba was a young man with a problem that no one seemed able to help him with. He was misunderstood and ostracized by most of his family, with the exception of his faithful brother, Willliam (Bill). Back in the 1960s, anorexia was a relatively unknown disease. If a person had it, no one knew; they just assumed there was something, other than fear of eating or gaining weight, that was the cause.

The book opens with a description of the Zemba family Czech roots and life as a pioneering and farming family. We are introduced to various members of the grandfather's family and finally David's own family, and their transition from a farming family to a suburban family. The author describes the difficulties and stress David's condition caused in family life and how he took it upon himself to be there for his brother and look out for him.

The book describes how each family member came to a christian faith and how this impacted their lives for the better. There are bible verses at the end of each chapter. Those in the earlier chapters do not seem to have much bearing on the content but later on they are quite effective.

Although the book started well, I felt it lost its way towards the end. The latter part of the book seems disjointed and does not flow well. I almost didn't finish reading it as it became quite hard going. I think the author would have done better to stop writing at the end of chapter 10. The author readily accepts he is not adept at writing, and this is his first attempt. I feel he would have benefited from seeking some assistance, particularly with the latter chapters.

This ebook was obtained free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program.

Back to Work ... and blogging

Today, after nine weeks of varied activity and travel, I finally return to teaching my wonderful students. It seems like an age since I have seen them. I'm sure all the young ones will all have grown like mushrooms and some of the older ones will look more mature. It's amazing what a difference a holiday makes.

Will they have practised? Some will, most will not. Is this a good thing? I think it is in some ways. There seems to be some process that goes on in the brain when you take a break from playing. As a child, I rarely practised in the holidays. Sometimes I did, but I think that was probably when I ran out of other things to do! And it did me good. I remember coming back to pieces that I had struggled with in the previous year, and, miracle of miracles:  I could play them! It intrigued me, and still does, as to how a break affects one's playing.

When my children were born I had an even longer break from playing. I had four children in the space of 6 1/2 years - there was really no time for much playing for me, especially as we were home-educating as well!

So, 10 years later, I started teaching and also playing again. Yes, 10 years! It was hard at first. My brain knew what I wanted my fingers to do, but my fingers refused to co-operate. It was hard work. My muscles got a bit sore - not just fingers either. Arms, shoulders and sometimes my back, all complained at the "ill-treatment". But I kept at it, and I started remembering things, things I'd learned way back when I was at the Conservatorium as a student. I'd remember things my teachers had told me, ways of practising difficult passages and scales, double stops, different types of bowing etc.

And then I noticed something even more interesting: I was playing far more in tune than I remember myself playing before. My fingers just seemed to instinctively know where to go; my double stops were working well and the sound seemed a lot less scratchy than I remember. Perhaps my memory of my previous playing was bad? I'm not sure. I have one recording of my final performance at university. I don't like listening to it. My memorisation was patchy and it shows in the playing.

Yes, I passed the course but it's only now that I feel I'm really playing well. Is it a confidence thing? Maybe. Becoming a mother certainly has something to do with it! But all in all, the break did me good. And I'm hoping this long holiday will have done all my wonderful students just as much good.

Review: By Faith, Not By Sight

Scott MacIntyre is a young man with a zest for living and an indomitable spirit. The title of the book is a quote from the bible about how a christian should live and, through the play on words, also refers to the fact that he is legally blind.

Although his family acknowledged his blindness, they nevertheless tried very hard to ensure that Scott's life was as normal as possible and that he was able to experience all the joys of a sighted person. A blind person would not normally run or ski but Scott did both! He moved to London to study music and lived independently during that time, finding his way to classes, navigating the London Tube, and doing his own shopping. These are things that a sighted person accepts as normal but for a blind person they surely rank in the 'amazing' category.

The biggest secret behind Scott's success was his family. His family ensured he was familiar with new environments, helped him through new experiences and prepared him for life in a sighted world where appearance is paramount. For example, his parents taught him how to use cutlery properly and how to turn his head towards the person talking. Many times a new acquaintance would be quite shocked to learn that Scott was blind because he appeared so 'normal'.

At a crucial point in his musical studies Scott received a medical diagnosis that threatened to destroy everything he had worked for and even his very life. Again, his family rallied to support and encourage him, to find a cure, to help him fighting for life.

Through his struggle with this life-threatening disease, Scott learned to place his whole life and work in God's hands. He writes candidly about his recovery and subsequent acceptance on American Idol, each level he worked through to get into the finals and how his exposure through American Idol led to his future success in the music industry.

It is encouraging to read about someone who met the obstacles of life face on and through tenacity, faith and courage overcame each one. If he can do it, so can we!

Find out more about what Scott is currently up to on his website.

This ebook was obtained free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program.

A real person, a lot like you

 Sometimes when we're using computers a lot we can forget we're dealing with a real person on the other end.

Son of Hamas - a review

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of the founding leader of Hamas, Sheik Hassan Yousef. Hamas is recognised internationally as a terrorist organisation and is responsible for numerous deadly attacks against Israel, including suicide bombings. Mosab fully supported his father, whom he greatly respected (and continues to respect), but gradually became disillusioned as he saw the hypocrisy within the Hamas organisation and the indiscriminate killing of civilians and soldiers alike. Many of those killed were children. This tore at Mosab's heart - the dead children could easily have been his brothers. When approached by the Israeli intelligence organisation, Shin Bet, he didn't need much persuasion to assist them in trying to reach a solution to the never-ending slaughter on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

Mosab was frequently able to sense the people who needed watching, despite having no concrete evidence. He describes many instances of how this ability saved his life and the life of others. In particular, his involvement with Shin Bet acted as a protection of his father's life. Whenever his father's life was in danger, Shin Bet put his father in prison.  Later, when Mosab became his father's sole protector, he also was imprisoned during times of danger along with his father.

Six years before his arrival in the US, Mosab began to investigate christianity. He spent much of his time in prison reading the bible and making notes. Through his reading, his thinking gradually became more humane and he found himself unable to kill anyone, no matter which side they were on, even if they were those behind suicide bomb attacks. As you can imagine, this had profound consequences. He eventually found himself unable to continue in his espionage role and sought political asylum in the US.


I found this book is an intriguing and often nail-biting read. It can be a little confusing (to the western mind) with the unfamiliar names (Islamic, Israeli, Palestinian etc) and complicated politics but it's well worth the effort.

What are you worth?

A well-known speaker started off his seminar holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air. 

"My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE. You are special - don't EVER forget it!