used book snob no more

for only $104, as a bit of an extra christmas present, i was able to clean up my amazon saved list from about 43 items to under 30 items. most of these 14 books were originally at least $12-15 each and some were around $20. The actual cost would have been at least $250. was it worth it for books i may only read once before they collect dust on the shelf? nope. so consider me a used book snob no more. almost every one of these books are in perfectly fine condition. i think two or three of them may have some wrinkled pages and quite a few have a single black marker mark on the bottom, but that's it!

as you can see from the picture, going down the stack, i have a new devotional book for 2007 (thomas merton), three more christianity books that i've been waiting a long time to snag, three david halberstam baseball books, a roger kahn baseball book, one more roger angell baseball book (commitment: i will read at least one angell book this offseason), a baseball book on the players and history around the early 1900's, an easy reading book on one guy's fantasy baseball adventure, and three vegetable / herb gardening books for our big garden in the spring.
well, happy reading for me! though most of these will have to take their place at the back of the line.

p.s. from searching the last couple of months, it looks like i haven't mentioned the garden yet. click to read more...

i wanted to do one this past season and then regretted not doing it. i'm going for it this year. i'm not quite sure how big i'll be able to do, but i have a lot of usable land. i'm hoping for a 20' x 40' monster, but it depends on how many rocks i'll have to dig up. i'm really looking forward to it and it will serve multiple purposes. we're planning on staying here for quite a few years. this symbolically plants more 'roots' for us. after an initial investment, this will eliminate the cost (albeit not terribly great) of purchasing vegetables and herbs (ok, those are expensive usually) from the store. this gets me outside into the fresh air. this gives us something to do as a family rather than just watch tv or play on the computer. and lastly, as i learn to cook more, this gives me a fresh supply of a ton of ingredients. i may be getting in over my head, but it will be fun for a while.