June 5: #17 Buy/obtain a book
Phil: My job at the old newspaper has a bunch of books we’ve collected over the years that people often borrow from and then put back. I hit that shelf for the first time today and really perused. I ended up picking a book called “The Red Bandanna” about Welles Crowther, a man who saved countless lives on 9/11 and whose story was pieced together little by little over the years following the terrorist attack that day. A common thread in the stories from survivors he saved was that they remembered him as the man wearing the red bandana over his face. I read some excerpts throughout the book tonight that were marked up already by dog ear folds or pen brackets. The book I took was an advanced copy given to my newspaper at the time of its publishing in 2016 so we could write about it in the paper, I assume. I’m going to keep reading it throughout the week on top of the other book I’m currently reading, Noah Levine’s “Dharma Punx.” It’s crazy I’ve been at my job two years and never considered checking out a book from those shelves. But now it’s part of my lexicon.
Bruce: I started my day using the prompt as an excuse to talk to people on Facebook about their favorite Authors and books. That brought up some new names and prompted some nice discussions. There is a hole-in-the-wall hidden gem “free library” of used books in the beautiful town of Port Jeff that is donation-based and I opted to visit for my book purchase. With a phone full of recommendations, when I walked in I was immediately drawn to a non-fiction shelf to my left and saw this book called ”The Great Reporters“ by David Randall. Lately I have considered going back to school for journalism and this collection of profiles of 13 great press journalists seem to jive with that idea perfectly! I looked around at the rest of the books and nothing else really caught my eye, dropped two dollars in the donation bucket and walked to the water to read on a bench. The experience was serene and very needed. I started the day thinking “This is probably the least necessary task for me considering I have 60 or so books on my shelf that I have not yet read and I’m also in the middle of a very long and dense fiction book”. But “The Great Reporters” afforded me a break from my current book and all That being said, it makes it all the more powerful that the book that I bought today actually invigorates and inspires me. I’m 100 pages into this, I’d recommend it as I’m getting a lot out of it, plus I got to talk books with a bunch of friends. Another win!
Tomorrow's challenge: #5 No television or movies