I Read a Book!

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Despite good intentions, I rarely pick up a book. I read in the blog world, where I lose all sense of time, happily interacting with my friends around the world. When John was away recently, I was determined to read the first of three books friend Nancy sent me — Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. It was written by Fannie Flagg and published in 1987. The setting of the novel is near Birmingham, Alabama, which is only a few hours away from my hometown. Reading that book was like visiting with friends of friends. I didn’t meet anyone I knew, but many of the characters reminded me of people in my past.

Marking my place was a bookmark neighbor Connie made for me. What a delight it was to use it! I saw it often on my bedside table, but I loved putting it to work and handling it often. Maybe the bookmark will inspire me to keep reading, even if only for a few minutes each day.

022019 Bookmark by Connie.JPG

Published by Anne Mehrling

I'm a retiree who loves to write about life in the mountains of North Carolina.

Published

77 thoughts on “I Read a Book!”

    1. I grew up in Ripley, Tennessee. It’s 50 miles north of Memphis and 10 miles east of the Mississippi River. I still have my Southern accent, not erased by fifty years of living on Long Island. What do you sound like?

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          1. I don’t thin I do but the first time I ever heard myself on a recorder It was frighting.Who is the old lady talking my words. lol My aunt lives in MA. and people ask her questions just to hear her. She does ‘talk southern”.

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            1. I have done all sorts of things to get out of recording my accent. The answering machine at work never had my voice on it. I like the accent coming out of the mouth of others, though. Could listen to that all day long.

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  5. This is a win-win combination Anne. I look forward to retirement and reading again. I was such an avid reader when I took the bus back and forth to work, and read on my lunch hour back in the day. I’ve never been able to read in bed, not matter how good the book was – I’d be out like a light in a matter of moments.

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      1. I am the opposite – I don’t have any magazines coming to the house anymore except “AARP” (I’m years behind in reading it) … but magazines may keep me from nodding off. Even the wonderful Danielle Steel books we used to get, and I could not put down … five minutes in the bed and out like a light.

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        1. I keep trying to get rid of magazines. I read AARP because I need to know about things related to old people, but I can live without home-decorating ideas and whacky recipes that always call for some strange ingredient that I don’t have.

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          1. I haven’t even opened them, neither the magazine, nor the bulletin, and figured I should start reading them as I get closer to age 65 and Medicare issues. They do have a large website though – there was an interview on the radio a few years ago saying what great resources could be found on there for seniors and various discounts they could receive. I jumped on the website – it is pretty large.

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            1. I’ve never looked at the website. Must do so!

              I skip lots of articles, especially in the magazine. I’m not very interested in entertainment figures. The bulletin has some really good tips. I’d say start with the bulletin and leaf through it. Read only the articles that snag your interest.

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              1. I went on the website a long time ago Anne, maybe the last time I renewed my membership – I saw how much they raised the membership and I was going to do 5 years. I think you have to plug in your membership info and there is more content available. I also went on awhile ago as a fellow blogger did satirical pieces and they sometimes appeared in the AARP magazine. We had “People” magazine for years and they kept raising the prices and my mom/I decided the subscription price was not worth it for the few human interest stories or book or movie reviews. I began just buying the year-end double issue and then knew no singers, no “movie stars” (do they still call them that) or TV stars as we never watched TV nor went to the show. Quit buying it completely.

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                  1. It’s funny because years before we let the subscription lapse, my mom said “People magazine is expensive – I don’t think it is worth the money, do you?” We split everything in the house, and I said “well, it’s nice to pick up the magazine and read the stories and know some of trending things” … so we kept it. After my mom passed away and I was unemployed until hired back part-time in 2011, I let all the subscriptions lapse – seemed like I could spend my $$ on better things – I only kept the AARP magazines/bulletin as they came with the membership. I only had the AARP membership when I had cellphone service with a carrier, as I got 20% off – that’s why I signed up with AARP, for that discount. I converted my phone to a “pay as you go” and I load it once a year with $100.00 and can roll over my minutes. I never use the phone – it is for emergencies only. Your niece has some more bad weather on the horizon. We are part of this weather phenomenon called a “bomb” this weekend. We have torrential rain on Saturday evening, then thunder and on Sunday we have very bad winds, maybe 50-60 mph. We have snow coming in Tuesday into Wednesday … you said she is there two weeks, so must endure this week as well. Ugh to Winter weather. https://www.clickondetroit.com/weather-center/michigan-weather/weather-bomb-possible-in-michigan-this-weekend-what-to-know

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                    2. I agree. Yes social media is full of this “Bomb Cyclone” – fresh stuff to worry about. I’ve purposely not replenished any fridge food as we’ve had multiple ice storms and high wind events the last month. I’d not out of food as I stock up in the Fall, but am out of dairy and bread. I had some brand-new cottage cheese with mold in it – don’t know what that was about. No big deal though with no fresh produce or fridge food as I lost food when we had the power outage in June and don’t want that to happen again. I think your niece will be happen to leave Michigan!

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                    4. I know and the last time in the Summer, they warned us to lower our A/C – I don’t run mine so it is very cold in the house, so I sure wasn’t using a lot of power. And it only happened on our side of the street. During the Polar Vortex, there was a natural gas explosion at the other energy provider here in Michigan. I have DTE Energy, but this happened at Consumers Energy. This was the coldest day when we had -45 windchill and -20 air temperature. Our Governor asked us all to lower out temperature in the house to 65 and if leaving for more than 4 hours to lower it to 62. If we did not do that, we were told we may run out of natural gas. I am not the only person who did not lower the temperature to 65 – I was afraid the pipes would freeze. I’m worried about the high winds – I am hoping something happens to diminish the wind (and the worries) before Sunday.

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                    6. Thanks Anne – I really am not liking these erratic weather swings … we have had oddball weather now since the Fall of 2017. Pretty soon it will be the hot and humid weather, spiking temps and threat of tornadoes. Thanks for your well wishes. I’d like to zoom ahead to Monday, except there would go the weekend (which I need) and have to hunker down and get the tax stuff together this weekend and break down and do a little housework.

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                    10. You know I’ve had weekends like that Anne. Every year over Memorial Day weekend, we took an extra day or two following the holiday because I’d work the entire weekend doing all the gardening … weather permitting, I’d be out there from dawn til dusk putting out new bark, planting all the annuals, dragging out all the yard ornaments. It was labor intensive. I’d be glad if it was nice weather and my mom and I would go to the mall or do something pleasurable. So I’d really dread Labor Day – we took the entire holiday to “Fall clean” the kitchen only. All the knickknacks on the wall, and corner cupboard, my mom had rows of ducks and old-fashioned pots, kettles on the top of the cupboard – everything came down to be washed, inside of cupboards washed, dishes washed … I finally convinced my mom we never used the china and glasses and hadn’t for years and years, so leave ’em up there. Needless to say, since my mom’s been gone in January 2010, I’ve never washed them either. 🙂 I hated Labor Day Weekend – I was ready to go back to work.

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                    12. That’s for sure Anne. I’m taking a little break and thought I should check comments … the wind is raging at 45 mph and I have my fingers crossed I don’t lose power. It is pretty cold out later tonight, though mild now. We have 1,000 linemen standing by due to the Bomb Cyclone.

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                    14. So far, so good Anne. Right now it is sustained at 32 mph, gusting to 43 … highest gust was clocked at 50 mph. Supposed to subside a little overnight. I put the radio on – had to hear music all afternoon as the two news stations were both broadcasting a basketball game (the two Michigan teams playing each other) … unplugged the laptops as did not want to worry about the power going out, even with the surge suppressor. I shut off the radio to vacuum and heard a terrific crash – maybe a tree branch landing on the back patio awning – scared to look tomorrow. There was another crash and I think it might have been whatever landed on the awning having flown into my neighbor’s privacy fence.
                      I hope no shingles are off. I have nothing in the yard that could be a projectile. On the news online I saw a woman’s patio awning flew off the house – I always remember the shed tumbling across my yard. Neighbor Marge called and said “now don’t be worried, but your shed just fell apart after tumbling across the yard.”

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                    16. It is still gusting out there around 25-30 mph. 100,000 lost power yesterday and they’ve been restored, another 40,000 without power now. I feel very lucky, the real feel is in the teens right at this moment.

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                    19. Wind hit us this morning on the way to the creek. Oddly enough, we were going down the steep hill. Usually the wind whips through the valley. When we headed home, we were on the steep hill again and heard the wind roaring in the tops of trees on the ridge. It was odd to see the trees whipped around and hear the sound, but we felt nothing more than a breeze.

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                    21. My hometown is on a hill and never floods. However, the Mississippi River is only 10 miles away, and it used to flood every year. Dams, levees, and water management began to control a lot of the flooding. My dad owned a farm in the flood area. Flooding left a rich layer of good soil behind. The house on the property was on high stilts. I never thought to ask if the tenants stayed when the flood came.

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                    22. I didn’t realize that flooding could be good in an area – for farmers anyway, they must be good minerals that come up from the river bed that helps the crops.

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                    24. I don’t know how the soil is here. For farming or even for gardening. In fact I bought some “Twist and Shout Hydrangeas” … they were supposed to a pinky/blue color but as Summer progressed, they would turn either pink or blue depending on the soil acidity … mine were the same color all growing season. I didn’t know if was “them” or “me” that had the problem. 🙂

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    1. I enjoy real books, too, and it’s thanks to friend Nancy that I had this one. I haven’t been very successful borrowing digital books from the library. The ones I want either have a waiting list of 40 people, or the library doesn’t offer them.

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  7. Hi Anne, keep us posted on how the book reading is coming along, and you’re so right – that bookmark Connie made surely is an inspiration. Have a light rest of the day.

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      1. Hi there, and yes i love reading. Book-wise, though I thoroughly enjoy reading physical books (used to be one a day), recently it’s more online reading of blogs or eBooks. I have a few book reads on the shopping list lined up, so am thankful for your post that comes like a gentle nudge to start with one. There’s something so cosy and special about enjoying a hot drink and an interesting book. That said, one incomparable book i make a note to read daily is The Word – sooooo thankful for that. Great to meet you here.

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  9. I love my books and read a few chapters every night but sometimes it gets very hard to put one down.I have 3 or 4 bookmarks I like to use some provided as advertising by fellow authors.
    xxx Sending Massive Hugs xxx

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  10. Glad you got to reading Anne. I often wondered why you didn’t read more and then realised you have no time- because you always have friends or relatives calling on you or church or walks or talks. I am glad this book reminded you of events in the past. The book mark is fabulous- most of the time, my bookmark is a triangular fold of paper from the corner of the page. I wondered also why there were no posts from you or mails and now I know- you were busy reading, perhaps with a cup of hot coffee or a couple of biscuits. Biscuits( cookies) and books go very well together.
    Susie

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    1. You are right. There isn’t much time to write while one is reading. I get so engrossed in a book that I don’t eat or drink while reading. In fact, I am often unaware if someone walks in the room and speaks to me. Reading, for me, is antisocial. Do you read a lot?

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      1. A lot but I eat a lot too, with or without a book. One of my earliest memories is reading a Mr. Pink Whistle book by Enid Blyton( British writer) nibbling mummy’s peanut biscuits( cookies).

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  11. Eye always have a book in the car, appointments, reading while waiting, M.A. in a store, reading while waiting, etc. There is one next to my chair and one in the bathroom, usually a periodical. When visiting the grands in CT when they were young, we read to them every night prior to bed. They are avid readers all!

    This could have been me.

    I Met a Dragon Face to Face
    By Jack Prelutsky

    I met a dragon face to face
    the year when I was ten,
    I took a trip to outer space,
    I braved a pirate’s den,
    I wrestled with a wicked troll,
    and fought a great white shark,
    I trailed a rabbit down a hole,
    I hunted for a snark.

    I stowed aboard a submarine,
    I opened magic doors,
    I traveled in a time machine,
    and searched for dinosaurs,
    I climbed atop a giant’s head,
    I found a pot of gold,
    I did all this in books I read
    when I was ten years old.

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  12. I’ve seen the movie, but never read the book. I liked the movie. It’s fun to read about somewhere that is sort of like where you lived back then. Hope you enjoy the book

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    1. Neighbor Logan saw my bookmark and said, “You have one?” I’m sure Connie made one for Shawn, Logan’s mother. My name is on the bottom, branding it mine.

      I’m glad to know you liked Fried Green Tomatoes, too. When I finish the other two books, I must remember to ask you about some of your other favorite authors.

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  14. I enjoy reading so much more than films, but I have to restrict the times that I can do either. Once something engages my imagination it can run for hours, sometimes days. Then the next thing we know I’m sleep deprived. Not in a position I can run with it YET, I am sometimes a teensy bit jealous of people that can read a new book before sleeping ( sometimes I can re-read old favorites or classics). Bookmarks have long been some of my favorite gifts and prized possessions.

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