September – Indian Art and Irish Poetry, the To Be Read pile, decluttering computer stuff

This month we attended the opening of a beautiful exhibition of mixed media art and poetry. Shabnam Vasisht author and artist, had produced a range of artwork collages of fabrics and materials like a peacock tail feather, which were matched by poetry from Irish poet and journalist Cathy Dillon. Their exhibition in a Bray art gallery was opened by Her Excellency Mrs Vijay Thakur Singh, the Ambassador of India. The two ladies also created a book.
The Single Nest contains the poetry and colour photos of the collages. Some of the poems speak of life experience or festivals and others of major events, such as the Air India plane crash near Ireland. The Indian and Irish cultures are contrasted and complement each other.


Shabnam has also written a five-book biography of her late mother Anu Vasisht, from student in India to Army wife, teacher, mother, school principal, world traveller, then retiree in Ireland. See my reviews.

A recent Goodreads blog asked if we can manage a book-buying hiatus to catch up on the To Be Reads.
I'm in three libraries, one for college so I have to read from that one. On Net Galley I get e-ARCs for review. These vanish off the computer after a time so they need to get read. However there is usually a stack of them on the computer awaiting me. I try to have only books I actually own / have on the computer/ Kindle, on my Goodreads To Read list.

So do I get time to read my owned TBRs? Not easy, given that I buy for myself and my husband and often want to read his books. I often buy secondhand because that way I get more books for the money. Specially wanted books are bought new. The main rule is not to buy hardbacks unless it's a very old book, and not to buy trade paperbacks very often, because these occupy too much room on the bookshelves. We recently built two bookcases (flat packs) to move books downstairs. I have not read all of the books yet. There are many more upstairs awaiting me.

When we are sure we are finished with a book, either I trade it for bookstore credit or it gets released into the wild for other readers. A college bookshelf or charity shop. Otherwise we would be buried under books by now. The book buying hiatus is easy if I don't have much money; but that can drive me to the library again despite the fact that the books at home are miserable and feel unwanted....

Speaking of piles of stuff, I decluttered some old computer equipment that was lying around the house, prior to college starting again. The dodgy PC cleaned of files, old printer / scanner, and two CRT monitors went to recycling land. I had been keeping the monitors in case a screen in use broke, but we have one each and they are LED. The weight and bulk of the old equipment was amazing compared to the new items in use.

Our technology is constantly moving to be smaller, faster, lighter, smarter and to use less energy. If you are in doubt, ask yourself how often you would want to carry this old item up and down the stairs.

With the big stuff on the way out, it was time to reduce the number of old keyboards, cables and mice too. As my husband pointed out, even the connections on these peripherals are too old now, and we are really not going to go back to something ancient and sticky. We did keep a couple of items. Just in case. We have cats, and cats jump on keyboards.

If you are taking such items to the recycling depot, and you want to say goodbye to anything that served you well (writers are strange), do it as you load them. When you get to the depot a cheerful worker will whip them up as you unload them, and they will be just part of the great debris pile we all generate and recycle into recoverable resources.
The old computer could come back to you as a fitness watch. But it can’t have a new life until you let it go.



As we have come to September, let’s make an end of summer book free to download. Murder At Wicklow Mensa will be free 27 - 30 September.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Wickl...

https://amazon.com/Murder-Wicklow-Men...

If you enjoy a book please leave a review, which helps other readers.
Visit my website www.clareobeara.ie for news, puzzles, books, reviews and events; also my blog on places with good disability access. I am adding book covers to Pinterest boards after I review the books, so feel free to find me on Pinterest.