Straight from The Horse's Mouth

We had little room on the boat for personal books. There were four small bookshelves, with the bulk of that space used for necessary books; equipment manuals, cruising guides, language books...Spanish, and chart books, etc.. The rest of the space was used for tools, spare parts, food and medical supplies. Sail boat space is at a premium. We could pare down clothing, carrying a limited amount. With a constant moderate temperature and a casual atmosphere, there is not much need for full ensembles on the ocean. Laundry-in-a-bucket also restricts what you can use.

The few personal books we took along were mostly reference books (I go nowhere without a thesaurus) and a few classics we wanted to get to. Thankfully, nearly every port had a book-swap. There was a variety to choose from, but I had little use for the French ones.

Fast forward to last week at The Horse's Mouth. A man came in and educated me ad nausium on the merits of Kindle. Kindle is a computer, a hand held e-book reader. It holds about 220 titles. You read a book on the cold hard screen and press a button to turn the fake page. You would think that this type of contraption would've been a wonderful space saver on the boat, but I am here to tell you it is not. Humans are sensorial and communicative creatures. We are born to tell stories, our stories, and speak for those who cannot tell their stories. We have a relationship with our words, thus we have a relationship with our books.

In the 1400's when the Gutenberg Press began stamping out books at a speed unheard of in the early days of widespread literacy, some people railed against the idea. They said the Gutenberg books were not really books because they were not the extra special hand-written kind. I understand that argument. Now, the Kindle is not a suitable replacement for books, in my opinion. We want to use all of our senses exploring them. Well, maybe not taste, unless you are two. However, we do want to be able to lick our finger to get a grip, and notice if we are turning one page or two with the sensitivity between thumb and middle finger. We want to carry books around like friends, security blankets. Kindle robs us of these human experiences.

Last Thursday we had our first Writer's Group. We had 12 like-minded people sitting around talking about the craft. Some were more experienced than others, but all had stories to tell. It was an exciting night for me, I felt honored to be part of the creative process. Everyone has a story and many of us need just a little encouragement to face the blank page with pen in hand.

Our stories come from everywhere. If you pay attention, we have interesting daily lives here in Buffalo, and many of us have experiences in other parts of the world; if not just a fascination for tales of foriegn places, there is always the appeal of exotic foods. On Friday the 23rd at 6:00PM we are hosting our first International Pot Luck Dinner and then play more Trivial Pursuit. You are invited to bring a dish from another country to share. We already have Russian, Authentic Mexican and Turkish food on the menu. What can you bring? Give us a call if you have questions. 903-322- 2180.

Think of the importance of space for bookshelves in your house. What books do you carry around? Are you the type that will not travel without an arm load of bookish adventures? Imagine how great it would be to write your own. Join us for Trivial Pursuit and great food. We'll be making memories for future stories.