I like looking over the New Books shelf in a library. Between emails and references in books and articles to other books, I constantly find things of interest, often on a subject or idea that I didn't know I was interested in. It is surprising to me how much my interest drives me to look through sources for reading.
When my greatgrandson was little, he wanted to see the box for a video since he had found that the images gave him a feeling for what the video was about and whether he would enjoy watching it. The same sort of thing applies to book covers. The people who create the covers do a good job of interesting me or turning me off with their art. I wonder if cover artists read the books they make covers for.
Every now and then, I come across an article that I think is especially good. When I do, I often think of including a link to it in this blog. Joe Pinsker's article on time management from the Atlantic is a recent example.
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/08/oliver-burkeman-advice-time-productivity/619723/
I have a picture of writers all over trying to make a living and using the many different publication possibilities on the internet to get their material out. I do almost all of my browsing using Firefox and it is connected to the free feature "Pocket" that suggests articles I might want to look at whenever I start to create a new tab.
The article linked above does a good job reminding me that "of the making of books there is no end" (Ecclesiastes 12:12, written thousands of years ago) and extending the idea to the fact that I am going to die without having read all the books of interest. I realize that Amazon, Kobo, Pocket and other prompters push titles at me without my filtering them but I suspect that artificial intelligence is trying to gauge my mind and tastes. That's ok since I don't know what is going to engage me, what is going to pay off, and what isn't.
I try to be conscious of how much I enjoy and benefit from books, articles and tv but not too conscious. I am guessing that about half of everything I start doesn't feel all that fun or valuable or helpful until I finish it. Sometimes, I read or watch because of Lynn's interests and then find I am glad to have paid attention. Like many sides of life, I guess it is best not to get too uptight, to stay loose, and give myself variety and new experiences.
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I read my posts to Lynn before posting them. I read this to Lynn and she reminded me that her ideas and tastes are especially helpful and valuable. According to her, without her help, I would overdo reading and miss out on living.
