A Wonderful Book You Might Not Have Heard Of

There are good books and there are great books and there may be a book that is something still more: it is the book of your life. If you’re quite lucky, you may at some point chance upon a novel which inspires so close a kinship that questions of evaluation (Is this book better than merely good? Is it some sort of classic?) become a niggling irrelevance. Luck has everything to do with it. For the sensation I’m describing has its roots in a poignant, tantalizing feeling that this marvelous new addition to your existence, this indelible Presence, has arrived by serendipity. Anyone who cares seriously about fiction eventually will get around to The Brothers Karamazov orMadame Bovary or Pride and Prejudice or Moby-Dick or Don Quixote, and if you’re somebody whose closest literary attachment is to a book of this staple sort, the satisfaction you take from it will not be graced by the particular haunted feeling of good fortune I’m talking about; you will have, instead, the assurance of knowing that your keenest literary pleasures were preordained. One looks differently on the book of genius that, even in a long bookworm’s life, one might never have stumbled upon.

This is from Brad Leithauser's introduction to Independent People by Halldor Laxness.  Ive been meaning to recommend a few books people might not have heard of (and to elicit recommendations for books I might not have heard of). 

Like Leithauser, I picked up Independent People by accident, though not, as he did, on a hiking trip through Iceland. No, more prosaically, I picked up the book at a library sale. I had never heard of it. I was enticed by the publisher (Vintage Books) and the remark by Jane Smiley on the cover: I love this book. It is an unfolding wonder of artistic vision and skill--one of the best books of the twentieth century. I cannot imagine any greater delight than coming to Independent People for the first time. 

While you are reading it, you might wonder what makes it so great. It took me a while. Often, I felt like I was trudging through this long book, much as the main character trudges through life. All will become clear on the last page.

 An interesting sidenote: The novelist Ann Patchett opened a bookstore in Nashville. 

In an Atlantic article, she mentioned that she did not like the name--Parnassus Books--suggested by her partner-to-be. She had always fantasized about owning a bookstore called Independent People--"after the great Halldor Laxness novel about Iceland and sheep." 

Well, in honor of Patchett, I'm not going to link to Amazon! Buy it from an independent bookstore or do the frugal thing and check it out of the library. My library doesn't own a copy, but they would buy one if I requested it. I really should as a service to other readers in my area. 

Do you know of any books you might never have heard of?

A Peek at our Future Declutter: 112 linear feet of books

Frugal Son is living with two roommates in a house in New Orleans. Thanks to one roommate who was working on a filming project with a producer, the house was chosen for a makeover on a reality show! Our main request: bookshelves.

Mr FS and I have long been accumulators of books. We are constant readers, but things had gone too far. Perhaps it was the tempting offer: 5 books for a dollar at Goodwill. The poor books languished and languished. Of course, they needed to be rescued by an appreciative person, who might even get around to reading them someday. Luckily, Goodwill raised its prices recently, which eliminated the need to get books in groups of five. Both our children are readers and we couldn't wait to give them some books. The moment has come for Frugal Son.

The designer told me to prepare for more than 100 linear feet of shelves. She offered to buy books in bulk to stage the shelves. OH NO! We have the books, plus it's so wasteful to buy all those Reader's Digest Condensed books by the foot.

I am about halfway through the culling. That's a lot of books. And guess what? I've hardly made a dent.

This is a vision of my future declutter. My parents weren't readers, so when they retired and moved, they didn't have books to contend with. (That's probably why I love books in quantity.)  Mr FS came from a set of readers. They had zillions of books, but could barely stand to give even a few away.  (That's probably why Mr FS loves books in quantity.) Then--because of health issues--they had to move. Mr FS spent a week in California packing books for the move. Then they had him bring boxes upon boxes of books that wouldn't make the move with them to a charity shop. The charity shop rejected the books.

Frugal Son can't wait to get his library. He is especially eager to peruse the cookbooks I've set aside for him.

Meanwhile, I came upon some books I should read. I started The Assistant by Bernard Malamud. It is an incredibly powerful book, so powerful that I can only read a few pages at a time.  Since I started the process, I have not bought a single book. I have so much to read!

Check out these photos of the office of a famous decorator. I have the books, but not the exquisite decor, alas.

I figure we have about five years to get rid of the excess. Did you have an event that knocked some sense into you about over-accumulation?

What's Goodwill Not Good For?

Any particular thing that you need pretty soon.

--A particular book you want (unless it's by John Grisham)
--Something your kid needs for school
--men's pants (good luck finding the right waist and inseam....plus style)
--jeans (plentiful but there are probably 300 pairs to go through)
--really high quality cookware (yet I've found Le Creuset and even 2 pieces of Allclad)
--outerwear when it's cold (easy in summer)
--Christmas sweaters around Christmas (easy in summer)
--valuable stuff (yet every now and then...I've never found anything valuable)
--travel gear, especially for men
--good shoes that one can wear (lots of high heels donated, however)

ETCETERA

Yet you will find the hard-to-find stuff  (not when you are looking) when you are there at the thrift anyway, looking for the things that are easy to find.

And even if you don't see an AllClad pan, the money you save on potholders will enable you to afford the desired object.

What to do if you don't want a picker to resell your donation?

This is in response to Duchesse's comment on the post about my past life as a picker. She has seen her chic donations to charity end up in boutique windows. That is a tribute to her fab taste, but also....errrrr...annoying.

I won't get into the ethics of reselling (except I do talk about it below--oops). I did read something on the issue that pointed out that charity shops were in business to make money for their charity, not to provide cheap goods for the needy (though this is a by-product). Also--trust me--if people didn't buy for resale, the charity shops wouldn't make much money. Seriously, most of the people I see are resellers. In the USA and perhaps Canada today, many of the needy have too much clothing--just like the rest of us.

There are reselling practices that I find unethical. Example: my area Friends of the Library has a huge book sale every month. A book reseller is now in charge of the sale. THAT is unethical. The reason it's unethical is because he LOWERED all the book prices (to a dollar for hb and 50 cents for pb) and now has first dibs on everything. I used to see him with his price scanner at Goodwill all the time. Now I suppose he just works his book sale. I spoke to the former prez of the organization on this : he said "It's ok because he puts a lot of hours in." I replied, "He's not donating his time. He's being compensated." Whatever. Now he can scan the donations.

Another example: the former manager of an area thrift store (who was not very alert due to health issues) had daughters who sold on Ebay. You could see the daughters take things directly from the donation area to their cars--without even paying a paltry thrift store price! That's even worse than the above example.

But what can YOU do with your chic donations if you want them to go to a needy person who would be thrilled to get them? Sadly, not much. Pickers are EVERYWHERE (perhaps I'll do another post on this). I would suggest donating directly to orgs like "Dress for Success" if you have interview-worthy items.

OR take the item to a consignment store yourself. Then donate the cash proceeds to a charity of your choice.

OR find a bunch of worthy recipients. One of Frugal Son's friends--a grad student-- wanted cashmere sweaters for the cold winter. I gave her some of my overstock.

Any other ideas?

Getting Rid of Stuff and Breaking Even: 2nd and Charles

Remember Miss Em's song Get rid of stuff/Make money. The new ditty is Get rid of stuff/Break even. We have a book problem in these parts. The problem is that we have books from Mr FS's late and beloved father still in boxes. But we have no shelf space.

So: a new twist for the books one reads once--or never--and is willing to part with. Books-a-Million is--in some spots--transforming itself to 2nd and Charles. The latter sells used stuff and bills itself as a green enterprise. You bring in your stuff--books, cds, dvds, games--and await the verdict. Generally, the verdict is ridiculously low. As far as I can tell, you get about 60 cents cash for a trade paperback and about 75 cents for a cd. About double for credit. Zillions of people are unloading their stuff!

Now, I wouldn't take books that were worth much of anything to this place, since there is no way to tell how much you are getting for an individual item; you get a total and it's all or nothing. However, I get lots of books at the thrift store for between 25 cents and a dollar. Ditto for cds. So I am breaking even.

If I had books that I thought were worth a good bit of money, I would check on Amazon, Abebooks or the like. But for popular novels from a few seasons ago or diet books or whatever, it's a solution.

The business model seems quite lucrative, incidentally. Bookstores buy new books for around 60% of cover price. At 2nd and Charles, books sell for around half-price. So a book they buy for 60 cents might sell for $6.00. It's a cheap way to fill their shelves. Each item they sell pays for 10 or more items.

And it must be appealing. I saw lots of good books and the place was hopping--a young demographic.

Getting 60 cents a book is no big deal. But when you bring the max allowed (3 bins worth), you can get about $80.00 at a pop. Not bad.

How to Upgrade: Decluttering Books

As usual, I am trying to get control of my books. Since many books come my way--owing to the biz I am in, not to mention my love of thrift stores--this is an ongoing process.

Adding to the problem: my recently self-diagnosed ADHD. I keep reading the books as I declutter! To wit: Nora Ephron's erstwhile best seller on her neck-hatred. I was planning to donate this, but I started reading and decided to keep it. (I know: BAD). In addition to an amusing essay on the cookbooks in her life, I loved a piece on books called "On Rapture." She says the most rapture-inducing book of her adult life is The Woman in White. Which I've been meaning to read for a zillion years. Which I knew I had somewhere. But WHERE?


I resumed my book clearing. As I looked at the decluttered shelves, I realized--yet once more--that the best way to UPGRADE is not by buying more stuff, but by getting rid of the lower-level stuff. My shelves were now filled with books I am likely to read.

It's not that the books in my DONATION/USED BOOKSTORE bags are bad: they are just in genres I tend not to read. So no, I will probably never read a tome called Life in Egypt under Roman Rule.

I'm sure you can see this coming. Guess what??? I found The Woman in White.

So, I now have 5 grocery bags of books-to-go, plus the book I wanted to read (thanks, Nora, for the recommendation), which, of course, saves me the time of getting it from the library, not that I would remember anyway.

Here's the problem. I discovered (via that Amazon link) that the Egypt book is a veritable CLASSIC. Reader, I retrieved it. And put it back on the shelf. I swear it's the only one.

Anyway, I am happy to report that my books are indeed upgraded. Getting rid of the lower-end stuff (whether because it is lower end or because you don't need it) does have the magical effect of leaving you with an upgraded collection.

Are you decluttering/upgrading? How's it going?

Gazpacho with Canned Tomatoes: Clean Out Fridge, Avert Tragedy

The tragedy is two-fold. First is that our tomato crop utterly failed this year. No wait: we got 6 cherry tomatoes. Second is that I inadvertantly opened three cans of tomatoes, which could get moldy, especially because we're going away soon and don't know if Frugal Son will think to use them.

Ah ha! Pam Anderson, a clever cookbook writer, discovered that you could make gazpacho with canned tomatoes.

Ingredients

* 2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes (I use Hunt's Petite Diced)
* 1/2 cup water
* 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
* 1 seedless cucumber, cut into 1/4-inch dice
* 1 small yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1/4-inch dice
* 1 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
* 2 medium garlic cloves, minced
* 1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (optional)
* 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
* 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, basil or cilantro
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Process 1/2 cup of tomatoes, along with the water and oil, in a blender or food processor until pureed. Transfer to a medium bowl, along with remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (Can be made several hours before serving.)

Needless to say, I didn't follow this exactly. I remember well my first gazpacho: I made it, along with my first quiche, for a fellow I liked who was off to grad school at Yale (1974). I had no idea what became of him till I read a book called French Lessons, picked up at Habitat for Humanity, and discovered him in the acknowledgment section. Then I discovered him in the book itself, under a pseudonym. Talk about weird!

My first gazpacho--and many recipes I've seen since--call for V8 or canned tomato juice. It's taken me a long time to wise up, but I now realize that Spanish peasants and others did not run to the grocery for canned juice when they wanted to make gazpacho. I also read that gazpacho may be of the class of recipes that were developed to use up stale bread. Food of the poor, once more. My first gazpacho was thickened with raw egg (!!), which makes it a retro recipe indeed. It was also topped with croutons (I fried them in garlic and oil--a labor of love). The croutons are, no doubt, an upscale version of the fried bread of earlier days.

So...if you can't get decent fresh tomatoes, try canned. What liberation. Thanks Pam Anderson.