Madness.

We sometimes use the term with such ease, when we want to explain something out of ordinary... usually when something occurs which we would not find normal to cause or participate in.

The tone of voice desides whether we think it is a good or a bad thing.

Some times we think madness is outrageous and the worst thing possible, other times it illustrates a fulfilled success.

I have been aware, for quite some time, that my mind works in a way which makes me come across as... not unstable or unpredictable or anything like that, but more... hard to figure out, I guess.

At least that is what people tell me when they think I should be told.

Anyway, today I concretised my own madness.

Not going to bore you with the long story, but the result of it, is that I had a lot of boxes filled with paperbacks. I stacked them on the floor in my office, and I never really paid any attention to them, other than when I was looking for some easy reading. Something I could sit down and do without having to think. Then I would browse through a random box, pick a random book and read it, for no other reason than to read.

I am not very good at wasting time, most of the time I multitask. But when I read, regardless of what kind of literature, I can focus on one thing, and that is the story taking place in my head as I read.

To read is so much better than to watch a movie, but I understand why not more people think that is the case: In my head, when I read, I see the movie, and I add details, accents, smells and tastes as I please... like a custom made film, just for me.

So, today I bid an era goodbye. Since I am on the mission to get a tidy house, where everything has its own place and everything is at its own place, I called the Salvation Army yesterday, and they told me they would be thrilled to take the books.
Getting used to the thought of letting the books go was hard, but I just could not justify the boxes anymore.
(It really is time to change your habits, when you buy a new book, and you realize it is an old edition (new cover, but still an old edition) and you discover this because you cite the text along while reading it.) 
Even less so since my son wants my office (which is actually an extra, tiny appartment in our house) for bedroom and entertaining friends. (We do not call it to move out, cause he has every intention of eating and getting his laundry done along with the rest of the family.)

I loaded the boxes into my car, searched the house and included stray books found  on the strangest places. By the time I was done loading the car, I realized that I, through the last 25 years, have read more than 2500 paperbacks, with hardly any variation in contents at all.

So, driving to the Salvation Army second hand store to deliver the books I was thinking: The only thing madder than buying these books is to actually read them... several times.

The best things that came out of me buying and reading these books, besides the peace of reading just for the sake of it, is that the Salvation Army will make a bit of money on them and someone (who may or may not really read a lot), will buy, read and like the thoughtless peace of reading, just for the sake of it.

Strange thing, though. In spite of the notion that you know how the story will end by the time you are half ways through the first page: The language in these books is often crafted and written in the most elegant eloquence I've ever come across.

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius, and it is better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” ~ Marilyn Monroe