Tag: reading

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Reading the Classics

Montage of “Overlooked Classics” from Christianity Today
One of the things I am doing as a retiree in Costa Rica is reading more than maybe ever before and adding the old classics to my list. To me this goes along with walking for my healthy lifestyle and sure beats anything I can find on TV! 
I am currently reading Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe which is a great adventure as well as an experience in history and geography. Of course it is a novel, but they sailed down the African coast right by The Gambia where I spent 3 years of my life, and after his time in Brazil where I’ve been on a mission trip, he was on a ship that crashed on a little island somewhere near Trinidad and Tobago in the south Caribbean, where my first tropical adventure outside Mexico took place as a Brotherhood Commission Consultant starting Royal Ambassador work on that tropical island with a missionary. 
Reading excites your imagination and helps you relive real life experiences while giving knowledge, adventure, entertainment and a vision for creativity. I love it! Already downloaded for more Kindle reading are Steinbeck, Plato, and another Agatha Christie! (Maybe I will eventually read all of her mysteries!) 
Living in a rainforest small town doesn’t have to be boring! (Unfortunately a few American expats find it so.) And reading is as much of an adventure as the trips I make! Which, by the way, my next trip is to the base of Volcano Turrialba for birding at Rancho Naturalista, the first week of July as my birthday trip!  ¡Pura Vida!      ~The happiest retiree in the world!  🙂
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A Quiet Introvert

One of the books I’m reading now is turning out to be a bit biographical at times. It is  Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. As a child all the way through high school and into college, I was definitely an introvert, just check my old Myers-Briggs personality test scores! And it was considered something like a disease by some people who wanted to help me come out of my shell. 

But in college I was remade by Southern Baptists into an outgoing, extroverted personality. After all, that was the only way to be a dynamic or witnessing Christian and unfortunately is still the expectation of most evangelical Christians, their churches, and of course their leaders. So, I really wanted to become a good Christian and serve, and that meant being an extrovert. And I was for most of my adult life. It was necessary to keep my jobs working for Baptists! (Some who knew me as a youth minister or leadership consultant will have trouble believing this!) But as I neared and entered retirement I began to move back to how I was born, an introvert, and moving to Costa Rica has given me the opportunity to be myself maybe more than ever before. I’m very happy here as an introvert!

Now, don’t worry. I have friends and socialize, just not as much as some here who can’t stand spending a half a day alone, while in contrast I have to schedule such! And prefer to travel alone! I’m only a fourth of the way through this book, but enjoying it! Then I will be ready for another adventure or mystery story! I’m reading more here than in many years before. Guess why?


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A Cup of Coffee and a Good Book

Even if the book is on my Kindle Fire!
My favorite place to read: on terrace at table or in rocking chair.

And for my friends on “Goodreads” note that they usually only show 2 books being read at a time and I almost always have more in process as my interests change, plus one is a daily devotional book which will take a year. My biggest escape right now is another re-read of another Harry Potter book, then I’ll go back to another mystery unless I find an adventure book that appeals to me. I have television only because it comes with the best price for internet which I must have. I seldom watch television. I’m mostly a “doing person” who is now “doing” things with my photography or simply making more photos! And of course the doing the essentials of life that can take a good bit of one’s time! But in my reading I think I am expanding some the types of books I read, though at my stage of life the most important is reading for fun! Which I do!  🙂 And I no longer feel guilty starting a book and not finishing it. That’s okay!  
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What I am Reading

If you are a member of Goodreads, the reading/sharing book club affiliated with Amazon and/or Kindle, then you know what I am reading. The Kindle Fire was the absolute best thing I purchased before leaving the states and is my primary entertainment. I have lost track of how many books I’ve read on it since moving to Costa Rica.

I have two versions of the Bible on Kindle and read from both each day (THE MESSAGE and HCSB). I have read several devotional books of varying value. I reread the entire Chronicles of Narnia series and the entire Hobbit-Lord of the Rings series, more traditionally I have read John Grisham, Agatha Christie, and Louis L’Amour books, plus some children’s books (still a child at heart), Costa Rica books, nature, birding and travel books, a pair of science fiction books that were pretty good: From Time to Time and Time and Again, both by Jack Finney. I read a book on simple living which I’m not following real close, the lengthy and sometime boring Don Quiote and the latest biography of Jimmy Carter, A Full Life, which is very good. I read three books by Catherine Ryan Hyde which were all good and totally different, though really into everyday life problems and emotions from a wide range of people and situations. Pay It Forward is her best and was made into a movie I understand but can’t find on Netflix. Electric God  was not what I expected but was very good and I recommend. And I just finished When You Were Older, which was particularly interesting to me because of the special needs child becoming an adult and reminded me of Juli in many ways. I am now reading a World War II novel about two children, one in France and one in Germany and how the war is affecting both of them in both similar and different ways. It is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Even as a war story it is lighter reading than the last book which became emotionally heavy for me at times. Most Children’s stories are good! Not sure what will be next.

I also read National Geographic digital, Christianity Today digital, and Washington Post digital on my Kindle along with a locally made Costa Rica Bird App to identify birds including their songs (On my phone too! A guy in our birding club developed it.). So this little gadget has been a world of information and entertainment! AND I have the Kindle App on my Galaxy 4 Android Phone so that when on the bus to Alajuela or in a restaurant, I can read on my latest book or play solitaire. On the Kindle at home I also have a jigsaw puzzle app. Wow! I don’t watch TV though I probably should some just for the Spanish. And I’m using my Bose CD player for a CD-based extra Spanish class which is good for the actual talking and pronunciation. Never bored! Pura Vida!

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.


–Vera Nazarian

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My Library

My library recharges at night, Kindle Fire & Samsung Cellphone (Kindle App).

One of the smartest things I did before the move south was get a Kindle Fire and then add the Kindle App to my cellphone! I read everything from the Bible to novels, National Geographic and occasionally the news, all electronically on my Kindle. When riding a bus or eating in a restaurant I read on my phone. As a quote I used yesterday in the butterfly post says,

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”  
-Marcus Tullius Cicero
FYI, I’m currently reading the latest English version of Don Quixote and it is too early for me to have a judgement on it yet (but a little weird so far).  A couple of days ago I finished reading Pay It Forward, one of the best books I’ve ever read! It is by Catherine Ryan Hyde whom I discovered by accident from a little 99 cent Kindle book by her titled Electric God which was very good and pointed me to Pay It Forward which was also made into a movie. Sorry that Netflix is not streaming it, just on DVD which I can’t get here. It is about how a little boy’s school project to “change the world” actually did! Of course the movies are never as good as the books!  🙂

Locally made bookcase with doors
to protect from dry season dust. It
is between book boxes & guest
room wardrobe.

After arriving I started by reading all of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit,  and all the books in Lord of the Rings series. Great ways to escape the American culture! Those lengthy readings were broken up by two John Grisham mysteries, Agatha Christie, Louis L’Amour, three books on Costa Rica, two science fiction books, and The Psalmist (a mystery) by James Lillieford, a new and interesting writer for me. I’ll try him again.

Because I did bring two hard copy Bibles, my photo books, a couple of books on simple life, and my bird, butterfly, plants and other Central America nature & travel guides, I got a little bookcase (Pequeña Biblioteca), with doors to help with the dry season dust. It is simple, handmade locally, and serves my purpose well. I will also be keeping a few of the genealogy books as I go through them, but all my scrapbooks are going to be photographed and become electronic files as most of genealogy stuff will.

Mostly, my library now is my Kindle Fire! Best library yet!

Nature is my theme, so here’s one nature photo:     🙂

Rainy Day Green! Even with dull, overcast sky, greens seem brighter in rain!
Another view from my balcony in Atenas, Costa Rica!

And for those of you who know Reagan Frazier, he just scheduled a visit with me for two weeks in February 2016, just 8 months away!  🙂  But if thinking about it, February is off limits now.

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“Doing Good” Video Interview of Me

Before leaving Nashville I was interviewed by a staff person with Fifty Forward Donelson and the “Doing Good” program that encourages retirees to volunteer in activities like the FLIP (Friends Learning in Pairs) reading tutor program of which I was a part. I’m always nervous on camera, but even with nervousness, I think it turned out okay and hope it helps motivate someone to volunteer. It was impromptu, no script, just her asking questions.

(Click title to see short video.)
Do good! It will make you happy! Volunteering in Costa Rica is on the horizon, but I’m still getting settled now and really need to learn the language to do much good locally. It will happen!  🙂
Me as a reading tutor at Tulip Grove Elementary School last year.
To be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.
-Sophocles


Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Hebrews 13:16 ESV