But what?

Well, I've now ended my internet break. I ended it two days ago. Yes, I had a good Christmas.

I got given a Waterstones card, so yesterday morning found me in Waterstones. And I bought a couple of books there: Paradise Lost by John Milton (which I have yet to begin) and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (which I have begun, but have yet to finish).

One thing I should note about these books is that they were both on the list of books I took to Waterstones with me. I didn't actually use the list when in Waterstones, but I do like to write a list of books to jog my memory before hand. Another thing I should note is that the Solzhenitsyn book, being a popular work of fiction, was with the popular works of fiction—and that's a section of the bookstore that I never browse. I only looked because I was wanting a particular book.

I think the books someone buys says something about them. I'm not sure what, but it says something—and it's possible that it says more about what the person hopes to become than about what they already are. If you control someone's reading matter, you essentially control their ideas, because what people read does influence their ideas. That's why I should read the Bible.

I think that I maybe know what my choice of books says about me, too. I want to be well educated—and I think the best way to ensure that I'm well educated is to ensure I read good books. So I'm buying books to that end. However, because I'm not the best at sticking to things—when I do stick at things, I always surprise myself because it's not really my strong point—I have to ensure that I buy a book that will interest me. And the interest has to be over the educate factor. I have tried to read books this year that I've dropped after the first chapter, and I don't like doing that. So the books I buy have to interest me.

I digress now to tell you that I am working at the sticking to things bit. And recently I have been succeeding better than normal. I think the secret is to have a goal that I want to achieve or to know why I'm doing something (and they had better be good reasons, or I won't stick to whatever it is that I'm doing).

And talking of sticking to things reminds me—this would be a second digression—that I need to write thank you letters. I plan to make nice thank you cards, and then write them. I have not yet started either the making or the writing. But people must be thanked. I think I'm giving the impression that it's a nasty chore, and I don't think that's a good impression to give, but I do tend to view it as more a chore than anything else. However, I know people like to receive thank you letters and when I start writing them I probably won't find it too hard. It's just finding matters of general human interest to write that won't upset my friends and relatives. And that is harder than blogging, but I think blogging has improved my thank you letter writing abilities.

We were talking about books, and I made a rather blanket statement that books say something about the person who bought them. They say something about the person's interests, personality, and hopes. In fact, all reading matter does. But what does it say?

And to know that, you need to know the person. You need to know the whole story: where they are now, where they came from, where they want to go. Otherwise it is vain to speculate.


But now I digress again. My sister is asking if I will publish this blog post. I think maybe. But then, maybe not. But why ever not?

So I shall publish this. But say this of it: my sister, not knowing what I wrote about, asked me to publish it. And so I did.