The End

I recently published my first edited book,  Labor of Love: A Literary Mama Staff Anthology ,  with  Small Harbor Publishing . It's an anthology of writing from  Literary Mama  staff over the past 20 years. It's a beautiful collection and I am proud of the writers and proud to share the book.  It seems a fitting moment, as I pondered sharing about the book here on the blog, to reflect on my life as a blogger, and acknowledge that it is time to officially end this blog.   I started blogging in about 2007, when my baby was learning to toddle, when I was learning how to be a mother and stepmother, when I was just starting to see my way as a writer. I needed it back then. I craved it. I had a variety of blog iterations--family, art, creativity, writing things I delved into. There's a freedom in blogging, a casualness, an easy familiarity that's lacking (for me anyway) in other kinds of writing. I loved blogging and the words came pouring out.  Over the years since then, some
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Friends of the Library Booksale

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” - Lemony Snicket

Each May and October, a phenomenal transformation occurs. Over four weeks, a giant warehouse  filled to overflowing with more than 250,000 volumes of books, magazines, DVDs, puzzles, and games, is emptied by booklovers across Tompkins County and beyond. It's the Friends of the Library Booksale, one of my top three favorite things about Ithaca. I have attended and bought books at every sale (and numerous times throughout the sale) for at least ten years, though I skipped one or two during Covid. 

It's an event that reinvigorates my hope for the world. Aisle after aisle of books of every genre you can think of, and many you can't, all donated with the sole purpose of passing on entertainment and education, as well as raising money for the TC Public Library. In this modern world of digital media, virtual reality, social technology (all of which have their costs and benefits) I remain astounded that I live in a community that can move hundreds of thousands of books every six months. It is wild and refreshing. 

This spring I snuck in at the end of the day on the first day, when prices are at their highest- $4.50 per book- and found a handful of gems. Then I stopped in yesterday, when every item was 10 cents, and raked in 20 items for $2. Some classics I couldn't pass up and will put out in my Little Free Library, others for reference, art, or some fictional entertainment, and a couple of cookbooks for our family shift back toward a vegetarian diet. 

Will I ever get to read all these books? Not to mention the hundreds I have on my shelves already, the thousands I can take out from the library, and the multitude of books yet to even be published. This article from BookBub shows some charts that estimate how many books one might expect to read in their lifetime. Though I've had a few slimmer years, I'm back on the reading bandwagon. And according to this chart, if I keep to a good clip and assuming I live for a while longer, I may have about 2,000 books left. 

That's a reasonable number. And a lot more trips to the Friends of the Library Booksale. 

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” - Mortimer J. Adler

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