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Library Shelfie Day 2024
Some people take selfies. Some people take pictures of their kids, their pets, even their food. Here’s an entirely different social media share. Today is Library Shelfie Day when you can show off your bookshelf aesthetic. It’s basically a selfie of your personal library. Who knew?
💐 Everything You Need 📚
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero
Fortunately, we do.
The garden isn’t my area. As I don’t particularly enjoy going outside, I’m pretty indifferent to how it looks out there.
Kelly, on the other hand, has a wonderfully green thumb and an eye for beautifying the house. I’m blessed that it is so.
As for the library, we’re both bibliophiles. It’s a wonder we have an inch of wall that isn’t covered with books.
Of course, Cicero didn’t have the advantage of on-demand entertainment. That’s my garden. That’s how I enjoy the outside.
As much as I love the lush rolling hills of Pennsylvania, I’m just as thrilled to see the sights on the far side of our planet and the untamed vistas of imaginary ones.
Sure, you might say that’s not real. I’ve always held that reality is for those who lack imagination. Why be confined to reality?
When things are good, it’s fun to explore places we can’t get to in reality. When things are bad, it’s nice to have someplace to retreat to.
The best thing is that I’ve never gotten sunburn hanging around Tatooine and I’ve never gotten frostbite going North of the Wall.
As immersive as my favorite books, shows and movies may be, I don’t have to get eaten by bugs to enjoy being there.
Do 📸 You 📚 Shelfie?
First Ever Bookshelf Tour | Many, many book recommendations!
I don’t. I hadn’t heard about this until now.
I do, however, take great joy in taking pictures of our library book sale hauls.
It’s our idea of treasure hunting.
It’s also hard to pass up the bookshelves of the many thrift stores we visit.
You never know when you’ll find a gem or two.
🤔 Thought In Cold Storage 🧊
A library is thought in cold storage. ~Herbert Samuel
I’ve recently added another book to my segment of the shelf and I’m feeling pretty good about it.
As I mentioned last time, I’m getting antsy to get back to The Sentinels. I’ve been giving the series some thought as time allows.
I find myself stymied by a number of aggravating factors, not the least of which is stress.
I am stressed the fuck out.
Work, bills, inclement weather, the price of things I want but can’t afford. It’s all very distracting and doesn’t leave much room for subconscious churning of story ideas.
This I could live without.
Despite my fictional escape mechanisms, stress creeps into even the most escapist endeavors.
One of the great things about writing is that when I’m in flow state and really immersed in the story, the only stress is whatever’s happening in-world.
One of the dreadful things about being stressed is that it’s incredibly difficult to get into flow state.
If I can’t get into story mode, it’s very difficult to get words together. There is a distinct difference in quality between trying and doing.
Part of the difficulty I’m having is that when I try to get into story mode, I’ve got too many guilt-driven distractions to let it happen.
All these other things I should be doing instead. Trying to find the balance is difficult. It’s a complete waste of time stressing over things, but it happens anyway.
I was presented some videos about short story writing and flash fiction during a recent research binge. I’m not sure how I feel about it.
I’ve mentioned that I’d like to produce a book-specific anthology of related short stories for each of the 13 books in the series.
I thought some flash fiction might serve as useful content on the Sentinels Station site. Maybe. Guess we’ll see.
Of course, who can write a book when there are taxes to be filed, reports to modify, dishes to wash, data to convert, cat boxes to change, code enhancements to enact, dinner to cook, meetings to attend, bills to pay, sleep to succumb to.
The real kicker is that while I’m doing ☝🏻 all of that 👆🏻, I’m struggling with the guilt of not spending that time ✍🏻.
It’s a wonder I’m sane…
That’s it for today. As usual, I’m pretty tired. As usual, that means I’ve still got tons to do. That means I’ll be tired tomorrow and the next day, too. I hope you’re having a more relaxing week than me.