Spring Fever

Well, finally we’ve had one of those great ienxplicable warm spells in winter that makes you love living in the South. I think it’s been a week now in the 60s and 70s. Shorts and T-shirts.  Ahhhh. Inevitably we’ll snap back to some winter weather before spring is really here, but this is so good for the soul.

This weekend my stepdaughter and I (plus the schnoodle) went paddleboating around a lake, we played on the playground, read outside, and in general enjoyed being barefoot and warm. The dog got to chase some herons across land and lake, one of his favorite–and always futile–pasttimes. God help him if he ever catches one.

And now I’m going to sit outside for a while and read in the sun. I’m taking a break from clearing out my bookshelves–always both a satisfying and doubt-filled chore. I used to keep everything I read, but past the age of, say, 25, that became impossible. Not enough shelf space. Now I’m trying really hard to stick with the rule that I only keep books I think I might want to read again some day. Or books I truly loved, which is usually the same thing as the first rule. The rest I’ll give away, either to friends or through Better World Books (which I highly recommend) or to a local used books store. It doesn’t matter if I hated a book, I can’t stand to throw it away. 

I’m starting Straight Man by Richard Russo, which I’m really taken with. Finished David Copperfield, which I loved. It’s probably my second favorite Dickens book next to Bleak House. I do wish people in real life had names like Dickens’ characters, so you could know immediately if they were rotten to the core. It’d be great to meet a Mr.Murdstone or Mr. Tulkinghorn or Uriah Heep at a dinner party and know automatically, oooh, hello, you must be evil.