Book Seller

I have so many books that I’ve often joked about opening a bookstore. I have no place left for another bookshelf so there are stacks of books piled up everywhere. I’m fed up with the clutter so I’ve been selling books on Amazon Marketplace. I went through my book collection and decided to get rid of any book that has sat on a shelf for years without being read. It helps to do this when you are tired and slightly depressed. Just ask yourself if you feel like reading this book or would it seem like a weary chore. If reading the book is a weary prospect you’ll be more willing to part with it. After listing 200 books on Amazon Marketplace I’m currently selling one or two a day. When that trickles down to nothing I’ll list the books on BookMooch, a book trading site. Using BookMooch means you are just giving the books away but some books are easier to get rid of when people can get them for free. I have a lot of old technology books that are hard to sell; Visual J++, Java, ASP, MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 and NT Server certification books.

In addition to clearing out some books, I’m also trying to do something about other forms of clutter in my house. I’m a bit of a pack rat so there are many piles of junk lying about. I may throw out a lot of stuff instead of trying to sell it on eBay because that is often a lot of bother. I recently tried to sell a portable color TV on eBay but it did not sell so I threw it out. Last night I tossed some old bank receipts and bank statements that I don’t really need to keep. I don’t want to throw out too much at a time though because it would raise my garbage bill.

I continue to study French. I don’t think I’m quite ready to read a French novel. I could probably read a children’s book in French and I can read my French textbooks because they use high frequency words. I recently read the novel Paris Hangover by Kirsten Lobe. She used some French in the novel and I was able to read all of it without using a dictionary. But I bought a novel by French author Gabrielle Wittkop, Sérénissime assassinat (Venice Murder) and even the prolog gave me a lot of trouble. I should finish reading the French Level 1 textbook Nouveaux copains by the end of the week. After I read the Level 2 and Level 3 textbooks I’ll move on to Suivez La Piste: A Detective Thriller in French in 25 Short Episodes, The Ultimate French Verb Review and Practice, French in Three Months (Hugo), and then Skills and Techniques for Reading French. After I’ve read all that I should be ready to tackle a novel written in French.

I also intend to study German but that is on the back burner while I reinforce my French. I went to Borders at the mall and bought a copy of German Life magazine. I saw an ad in this magazine for a Christkindl Market in Mifflinburg. Mifflinburg is a familiar name to me because it is a small town just south of here. It is strange that I’ve never heard of this German Christmas event. And nearby is the little town of New Berlin. It would be a lot cheaper to visit New Berlin than to fly to Berlin! I get the impression that Union County is Pennsylvania German territory. I’ll probably go to the Christkindl Market to get a taste of German culture. I still plan to go to Berlin for a week’s vacation some day but I need to reduce my debt before I can afford to do something that expensive.