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Aug 2, 2022Liked by Meghan Genge

I buy non fiction ebooks when they're on sale so I have a book ready on a topic when I decide I want to learn about it. I don't think I'll ever read all the books I've bought, but sometimes I look down the list and wish I'd learnt the secrets from all of them.

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This reminds me of a chapter in a book I read (several times) called The Sacred Year. It's one of those books that you don't know how it fell into your lap because it's not something you would have chosen (he's a theologian and and I'm not religious at all). The author choose 12 spiritual practices to deepen over the period of one year and one of them was called Lectio Divina. He talked about how most people skim or scavenge books, not really reading for depth, intimacy or meaning. Lectio Divina is when the reader comes to the text hungry and full of desire. Not looking for shiny ideas, but wanting to be nourished and fed...to be formed, not informed. You take a book piece by tiny piece, chapter by chapter looking for a word or phrase that strikes a chord and holding it with you all day, revisiting it, thinking about it, contemplating it, etc. I've always loved this idea. Reading and rereading a book until it lives within you. Until it's formed you as much as it can. This has been that sort of book for me over the past few years...I've come back to it (or at least several parts of it) often. Now you have me thinking about what book may be my next one to devour over the next couple of months or years...

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Aug 2, 2022Liked by Meghan Genge

Wow, someone else who has stashes of ebooks, books, notebooks, and pens. (Also, I have bags to tote these items should I need to travel with them😀)

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Oh my, I know what you mean. I sometimes want to be that person who's read all the books she owns and filled all the notebooks. I'm trying, but I'm also the person who likes buying books and notebooks. I also like to see them stacked (also on my Kindle) and waiting. And still once in a while I want to read them all and fill them all and be this person who only buys a book or a notebook when she needs it.

Lately I've read a few books I know I'll read again. I also feel that I want to read them in a way that I can disappear into them, to become one with the words in them. I want to know everything about these books, I want to know every word and every sentence on a personal level. But, of course there is a but, I'm me after all, I also want to read more. Just keep reading new stories, get to know new ideas.

I know I can do both and I will do both, but it's such a strange feeling to have, to want two different if not opposite things.

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It's me! I've read all the books I own! Real paper ones, and Kindle books. Well, OK, I usually have two or three Kindle books queued up, but no more than that. Honestly, it's mostly a money thing for me. I can't afford to buy every book that catches my imagination, so I buy as I'm ready for something new - but I do have an EXTENSIVE Amazon wishlist that would keep me going for years! I try to trust that the right book will appear at the right time (or the right discounted price will appear) and then will read it all the way through - I don't usually give up part-way, just in case there's something important that I haven't got to yet, even if I'm not really enjoying it or it's not really speaking to me. I have a mix of books on my shelves that I said I'd go back to again and never have, and others that are falling to pieces because they've been read so many times. And I will have a clear out every now and then and donate ones I'm definitely done with. Really interesting reading all the different perspectives on this question!

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deletedAug 2, 2022Liked by Meghan Genge
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