The Bibliophile and the Shoe-aholic

 

Our Catholic brothers and sisters went on Holy Week break. Regardless of our religion and faith, it was a welcome time to reflect on our lives and visions.

 

The Bible describes heaven in grandiose terms like pearly gates and eternal sunshine. My vision of heaven is really a simple one.

 

Now that my birthday is coming up, I realized that I have very simple needs. Heaven for me is a huge library of books, books, and books...with shelves of shoes, shoes and shoes...and a garden with dogs, dogs and dogs.:) Superficial? Well, I find simple happiness in traveling through different journeys and adventures through books, fitting in different shoes for different reasons, and hugging a fluffy dog. I do not have to own all of them; I only want to be close to them, in the same way that I want to be with my family and true friends.  And when I think about it now, I do not have to wait to die and find my piece of heaven :)

 

The dog-lover in me, it's all over my blog. Now meet the bibliophile and shoe-aholic... 

 

I think that I am an unusual type of a bibliophile. I will remember having read a particular book but not the nitty-gritty details of the story, or sometimes, not even the ending. I can re-read a book and re-live the experience of anticipation like I did when I read it for the first time.

 

In other words, I "read" in the moment :)



I only started buying books when I was in my 20s; most of the books  I have here are gifts, old textbooks or "rejects" from old libraries :)
My bookshelf (right) could be older than me - this was c/o Papa's carpentry skills.
The platera-turned-bookshelf (left) contains the more recent purchases which are
carefully hidden for obvious reasons (loaned books not being returned is my pet peeve).


Shoes are my Achilles' heel :D Enough said.


After donations and charity, still more than enough to go by...
My uncle turned the excess bamboo slats into my humble shoe-shelves.
Nothing close to Imeldific proportions, but seeing this reminds to be grateful for both the tangible and intangible blessings in my life.
 

How about you dears, how do you envision your "heaven"?