Buy A Book!

Our lives are so overloaded these days, we forget the simple pleasures of the dog days of summer.  The thermometer is boiling, the sunshine blinding, the beaches crowded, and ice tea is barely cold enough to do the job of cooling anything.

As the ice cubes melt, at lightning speed, pick up a book, head outside and sit under a tree, and read.

So much of our reading is done on the computer, that we often forget about books.  There are also those other devices, such as the Kindle, available from Amazon, other electronic reading devices from Apple. 

Are you interested in a topic such as the origins of ice cream?

How about the breeding of dogs?

If you're interested in politics, you might want a book that teaches various methods of herding cats.  [Little joke there, except of course to the cats.  They never are herded...too much individuality to even think about joining a herd.]

Could you answer a question about the current status of Noah's Ark?

How about the myriad applications of poetry to improving your love life?

A perennial favorite subject of mine is the Constitution, and its incredible versatility to have functioned in an 18th Century newly formed nation, all the way through moon landings and the Internet.

If you want to learn about it, find a book.  read a book.  Make books your friends.  You can read them without electricity, without any extra devices at all.  Then again, if you like gadgets, there are electronic readers.

So, don the thinking cap, put on your reading glasses if you need them, and read.  Then come back here and discuss those newly learned ideas and facts, new ways of looking at the history of ancient Greece to the history of your own hometown.  Enjoy.

And, if fiction is your interest, then by all means escape into a book.  Think of it as a vacation that you can enjoy for little more than the cost of a designer cup of coffee.  With or without the brownie.  In fact, get that coffee, the brownie, and the book.  Afternoon delight, indeed!