Rise Up Diaries ~ 1 July 2019

New library card and borrowing some books

Dear reader and diary,

Today is my first day on this diary and I actually already have plans for this day. First I needed to go to the library of my hometown and see if I could get a new card. After moving 5 years ago they changed the system and I learned my profile was lost. But thanks to knowing me (I worked here as a temp while still educating myself to a librarian in the university) I got a free card instead of paying a 1 dollar. Which I would happily pay for the amount of possibilities a card gives.

After getting my card I talked to the librarians I haven’t met for a long time about their new system and I showed her some tricks that would help her.

When I myself worked as a librarian we needed to read a lot of books, which probably is a given. But after reading so many books you don’t have an interest in yourself just because your work requires it and needs it for book reviews, book clubs, suggesting of similar books, working with books etc. You kind of destroy the joy of reading. Usually you read for the joy of it and you usually read books you want to read that do interest you. And if they don’t its easy to put down. But when doing it for work and having a strict deadline for it it suddenly is a job that not always is very enjoyable. At least not for me. So I have been reading a lot thanks to work. But I haven’t enjoyed a book in a very long time.

Of course this makes it possible you will find a book you never knew you would enjoy, find those jems and pearls. But considering I’m dyslexic plus the very strict deadlines and how many books that is given out on a daily basis that you need to have some sort of understanding to what they are all about. It went from being fun to being a job that just needed to be done.

So I decided that to get back into reading I would start rereading books I myself loved in my youth. If you use the wonderful app and website Goodreads I would love to be friends and we could suggest different books to each other. I been really bad lately to put in books I been reading. But I’m working on it.

Right now I borrowed and is rereading Misery by Stephen King. When I turned 15 Stephen King was one of my favorite authors. I’m excited to see if I still today (almost 10 years later) enjoy them as much. I know I had a hard time with his new book Outsider. I thought that book had a wonderful beginning and a great ending but somewhere in the middle he just didn’t care to much for his own book. Almost like he wanted it to be long because he got paid per page and not per book (of course this isn’t the case).

Horses and afraid of heights

My childhood friend Veronica who also is my closest crazy horse friend decided to get me up on a horse Today as well. I cant say I haven’t been on a horse before. I think I was around 14 when I for the first and last time sat up on a horse. At that time I was extremely scared for my life even if the old horse fell asleep walking me slowly.

Veronica is a great horse riding coach and friend though who made me feel very secure. She also explain (just like at her summer camps and lessons) why I needed to do things and how to do them. I even got a wonderful gold star from her considering I had a great posture and did almost everything right without her needed to correct me. I have seen movies, I explained very proudly!

I can’t say riding is for me or something I extremely enjoy. I still have a huge respect for the giant animal between my legs that I don’t feel I have control over. But I can see why many people enjoy it.

What book/books are you guys reading at this moment?

Do you use Goodreads?

Have you ever been on a horse? Did you enjoy it or was you just as scared as me?

Next episode: https://elinsera.com/2019/07/02/rise-up-diaries-2-july-2019/

Much love,

Elin

Published by Elin's Era

I'm a former Swimmer, after getting nerve damage in my jaw I started coaching instead while going to the university. I studied Librarianship and information science. After I graduated I became and librarian. This is the best job and I love it. I have been to different kind of libraries and been different kind of librarians. But I settled down as a middle school librarian. I like helping children find their reading passion. I read daily and will write about everything I think about. Good books, bad books...any book really.

42 thoughts on “Rise Up Diaries ~ 1 July 2019”

  1. atwistonlife says:
    Reply

    Hi! First of all, I adored your featured image for this post. Did you take that yourself?

    Secondly, I completely hear you about reading for joy becoming a challenge when you are reading so much for work purposes. Congrats to you for taking on that challenge and finding a strategy for doing so. In reading your post I realized re-reading old favorites is exactly what I do when I find I’ve let the reading slide more than I’m comfortable with, too. For me, that usually means Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent, and Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible or Prodigal Summer. Isn’t it great to have those old friends you can go revisit any time you want?

    “Outside of a dog a book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog it’s too dark to read.” -Groucho Marx

    (Not posting that for any reason other than it makes me giggle so I felt like sharing.)

    As for riding a horse, it’s something I always dreamed of doing and finally did a few years ago. I bought a Groupon for a riding lesson and went for it. Honestly, your experience sounds far better. Like you, I had a massive amount of respect for the animal I sat upon. Perhaps for that reason, I felt rather bad about riding her without having more of a connection to her. She was clearly not the favorite animal of the instructor. The favorite was pointed out to me later. I felt the animal I was on was rather sad and in need of love, which then made me feel sad. The experience was a bit tainted as a result. 😦

    Liked by 1 person

    • Elin's Era says:
      Reply

      Hi 🙂

      Sadly i did not take that photo. I loved it and found it on a free stock website and thought it represented my feelings of a new day and a new journal to fill. Sadly the weather in Sweden is extremly rainy and its hard taking photos like this atm. 🙂

      I love those books you have listed. I havent read them in a long time but its wonderful to go back to books you enjoy in life. It doesnt just remind you of the books and the story themselves but also the time when you first read them and how they might have made an impact on you.

      I’m sorry your experiance was so bad with riding. :/ My first time riding was somewhat the same. I got to ride on a very old horse who nobody gave much attention to but she was kind to newcomers. I wasnt instructed what i was doing, why i needed to do them or how i should do them correctly. So it was hard to get into it or enjoy it much more than being scary of being that high up. My friend Veronica has 2 horses she loves more than anything in the world and she gives them the same attention. She also instructed me very well on what to do and how to show love to the horse the best way and how to be safe. Which made me feel more secure. If you ever try it again I hope you get a wonderful instructure because with everything its how they make it. I myself as an educated swimming coach I know a bad lesson from me could make the experiance of swimming bad. I have had people who been scared of swimming and water to later enjoy it. But Its all about how you as an instructure make it.

      Have a lovely day 🙂

      Like

  2. happytonic says:
    Reply

    I’m about to start The Bookish life of Nina Hill🤗 I only joined Goodreads 2 years ago, but now I can’t imagine what my life was like before GR. My family are not great readers and never seemed to understand my obsession with books📚📚📚

    Liked by 1 person

  3. retrodee says:
    Reply

    I didn’t know they had those catalogs with the cards in them anymore. I thought everything was done by computer now? Nobody seems to use actual libraries anymore which is a shame. It seems like everyone buys stuff on Amazon or just reads online. I hope I’m wrong! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Elin's Era says:
      Reply

      You are very wrong actually 🙂 Otherwise my job wouldnt be a job anymore xD There are tons of people who use the library on a daily basis and e-books is far from a thing. And a lot of ppl dont have money to buy all their books. I myself stopped buying books because I dont have space for them anymore so I only buy the book after i read it from the library and if i truly loved it and know i will reread it in the future. In the small town i lived in recently and worked in we had borrowed around 500 books a day to people. So just think how bigger cities have it 🙂 People who themselves dont go to the library or use them I can see why its hard to see why others would. But they are very much still in use. Nothing have changed at all 🙂

      The old catalouge is not in use anymore. But i love the look of it still. Very nostalgic.

      Liked by 2 people

  4. Gary says:
    Reply

    I was never much of a reader at school, that is, a reader of fiction. As a young teenage boy, I would happily sit with my family watching TV at night with a volume of an encyclopædia on my lap. I’d read and learn facts. I can still remember some pages of some topics like whales and space travel because I read about them so often.

    As I’ve grown older, I’ve had to read so many technical books and journals, that reading has become very much a chore.

    I’m still not very much of a fiction reader but I like biographies and learning about people. I also developed a love of TV-based science fiction and happily read the books associated with those shows.

    More recently, I’ve discovered the joy of audio books. I can now go for my morning walk or a longer weekend walk and listen to a book. I recently listened to an account of an entrepreneur who lost her way and got caught up in some dubious practices.

    I do have have a Goodreads account but I cannot remember my details. I must try to reactivate that account.

    Thank you for sharing your diary with the world 😃👍

    Like

    • Elin's Era says:
      Reply

      Lovely to hear 🙂 As a librarian I would say reading isnt just fiction but reading is everything. As long as you read and activate your brain in some way. My family is not a big reader family but: My mom work with elderly and read out loud for them. This makes her intrested in books in a way that i recently saw her read all by herself as well which was wonderful to see. My dad on the other hand is very much like you and only care for facts. He reads the papers, he read subtitles to movies, he reads news on the tv and computer, he reads his tinkering with the car books but also encyclopeadia for his crosswords.

      I myself is a big beliver that there is no bad or good reading. Everything is good as long as YOU enjoy it. 🙂 I do know alot of librarians who are very strict on what can be called reading and not. But whats the point. It shouldnt be forced on us. It should be enjoyed.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Gary says:

        I giggled when I read that your Dad reads subtitles. I love turning on the subtitles of movies. So much so, rather than going out to the movies, I’ll wait until the movie is available on iTunes so I can watch it with the subtitles turned on. I get so much more out of the movie that way.

        I agree, reading is inclusive. I just know I could stretch my imagination and creativity if I read more fiction, especially short stories. It’s why I like reading blogs I think. I like reading short stories whether they be fiction or not.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Elin's Era says:

        In sweden its kinda a must with subtitles ^^ We dont dub movies or anything here. Which means we get swedish subs on almost everything. Which probebly is also why our english in Sweden is rather good.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Gary says:

        I’ve never been to Sweden but a few years ago I met a Swedish delegation who visited Canberra (Australia) for a trade and science exchange. It was like there was no accent and their English was perfect.

        I’ve been to Helsinki once for a meeting and I was so happy that English, even my Australian English (aka Strine) was understood.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Elin's Era says:

        Yeah most people get very surprised we speak so well 🙂 I myself is in a relationship with a british guy and most his friends and family didnt hear I wasn’t british at first xD Which is kinda funny.

        Especially knowing english was very hard for me in school considering I’m dyslexic. I learned swedish by studying a encyclopedia. Word by word. But doing it for english as well didnt work to well with me. So I think I speak it better than I type it at some points.

        Same goes for my latin, german, norwegian, danish, spanish and french.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Gary says:

        Wow, that’s the remarkable thing about people from Europe. You know so many languages Elin. I wish when I was younger I had made of the opportunities to learn other languages.

        I know some people from other English speaking countries have trouble understanding me because my Australian accent is strong.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Elin's Era says:

        I find it easy to learn languages with Latin in my backbone. I love languages which I feel I shouldnt knowing spellings is way harder for me. So it usually goes slow for me in learning but I find it fun to understand people in their own language.

        I can probebly understand 15 languages but I cant speak or type it well even if I understadn when people themself speak with me. Korean and japanese is two of them that I understand but I would never be able to speak or type in it.

        Maybe it also have to do with being afraid of failing xD

        Liked by 1 person

      • Gary says:

        I trust as you get older that fear of failure will fade and you’ll just ‘go for it’ when trying to speak a new language you don’t feel you have mastered.

        I never had the option to learn Latin. I wish I did. It would have made studying some aspects of medicine a lot easier.

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Lindsey says:
    Reply

    Good luck with getting back into the reading, it can always be hard when something has taken your joy away from it for whatever reason. I hope you rediscover some jems. I think I have been on a horse, but I was about five at the time and not sure I’ve been on one since, aha!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Elin's Era says:
      Reply

      Reading will never fade in my life. It come and goes depending. Like i said i read alot, i just havent enjoyed it for a long time. But with summer being here and having time for me again I feel like I should be able to find my way to enjoy it again 🙂 Atleast some books ^^ Now i dont feel like its a chore I have to do because of work forcing me to.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Deskraven says:
    Reply

    I read a lot of True Crime, Memoirs, Classic Lit, all-things Psychology and Gonzo Journalism. This post hit close to home, thank you! I am also a lover of reading and writing. I considered studying Library Science myself, but I pulled out at the last minute and went into the Legal field (plenty of reading there!) instead. I wanted to be a writer as well, but chose practicality over true love to preserve my passion and enjoyment. It is a sad truth when a former love becomes an obligation.

    I have ridden a horse. A few actually. It was scary due to my exposure to freak accidents, but also majestic.

    Thanks for stopping by my blog! ♡

    Liked by 1 person

    • Elin's Era says:
      Reply

      i was about to go into the legal feild tbh 😮 but i decided to pick books over it anyway. But i soon understood a hobby wont be a hobby after you make it your job. Atleast not the same way. Im not regreting it. I love my job. And I love I started writing and selling e-books on amazon. much easier than you would think 🙂 I would recommend it if you love writing fiction as well 🙂

      Like

      • Deskraven says:

        Oh wow! It is a small world afterall. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. It seems a lot of people are self publishing these days. Can you tell me more about that process?

        Liked by 1 person

      • Elin's Era says:

        Amazon is free 🙂 You just sign up and publish for free. You use something called KDP or Kindle Direct Publishing. To format your e-book the best (word and other writing programs doesn’t make the book look good in a e-book format) I would suggest the program Calibre. Its very easy to use and learn. Its also a free program to download. If you dont like this program and want a “better” one and want to spend money. The best would be Vellum (250$).

        What would cost money is if you arent a very good designer to make a nice book cover. Some people use Photoshop for this and others use picmonkey. Others hire graphic designers. After all when it comes to Kindle books and amazon the book cover is what sells. Good cover = more downloads or buys.

        But signing up for KDP and to write the book itself and then to enlist it on the website is 100% free.

        Amazon pays the check 60 days after every month so its a late payout which could be good to consider.

        35% royalty option (books must be priced between $0.99 and $200.00)

        70% royalty option (books must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99)

        Depending on how serious and hardcore you want to be 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • Deskraven says:

        Wow, that is amazing! Thank you so much for letting me know, Elin (my middle name is Ellen). You have been most helpful. I look forward to visiting more of your posts in the future. ❤

        Liked by 1 person

  9. Sunshine with Savannah says:
    Reply

    Great post! Congrats on getting back into the system with a new card. Getting a brand spanking new library card is one of my favorite feelings, I think. I have started using Goodreads and have loved it as a tool to combat my own struggles of getting back into reading after a lengthy slump (my English degree definitely burned me out), and get excited to log and track every new read. Thank you for sharing!

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Pingback: Rise Up Diaries ~ 2 July 2019 – Elin's Era
  11. The WheatandTares says:
    Reply

    The horse is beautiful! I’d love to go riding someday. I’ve been, but it’s been many years passed. … Congrats on kind of “starting over.” It’s going to be different, maybe a little scary at times, but try to look at it as a new adventure awaits with each new day! 😉 Hope you have fun and find that you live your “new life!”
    Books I am reading/just finished: “Chase the Lion” by Mark Batterson and “Lioness Arising” by Lisa Bevere… actually didn’t plan on the “theme” here (Lol), but it is a rather invigorating and inspiring theme. 😉 Also, just picked up 2 small poetry books that were on sale at the local B&N: Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson…two authors I loved to read while in HS. So, I’m excited to stir up the poet within again…
    Blessings!💕

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Pingback: Rise Up Diaries ~ Weekend round up – Elin's Era
  13. jhward220 says:
    Reply

    I loved Misery and this diary would be a good thing for me to do so one day my children can read it. Don’t think an on line diary but a real one maybe

    Liked by 1 person

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