When Books Choose You

Books that chose me

I think books are sometimes like cats...they choose you, not the other way around.
I said that  to a dear friend last week, referring to a book she'd recommended that I was rereading.
And then Tuesday, wandering around town, I stopped in Best of Books in Edmond www.bestofbooksok.com, just browsing as I often do, and to get a free cup of coffee.
The friendly staff asked what book I was looking for, and I said I wasn't.
Then as I wandered back to the coffee pot, a book on the shelf chose me, Austin Kleon's latest, "Keep Going." This Austin, Texas artist, is a delightful departure from the routine. https://austinkleon.com
It's his third unique book on creativity, and I've read and kept his previous. They're written with a sharpie, including some of his sketches, blacked out poetry, and more--and easy to read, though deep in provoking thought and perspective.
Just what I needed as I stumble through every day, and also provoking me to return to this blog after more than a month, as it stumbles toward its tenth birthday next month.
The blog is almost comatose, changing from writing to more than art. Not sure of its future as I'm close to having an art web page soon, but then, the older you get, the more you know you don't know the future.
It's not the only book that has chosen me this year.
The other book I referred to above was Parker Palmer's "On the Brink of Everything," about aging, and it helps me as I stumble on.
Another book chose me this spring, suggested by another  good friend, "Ace in the Hole" by Annie Proulx, a novel set in the Texas Panhandle, full of accurate description and McMurtry-like characters.
Made me think of McMurtry enough that I pulled his book "Roads" off the shelf and reread it, helping spur more travel fever.
Other books that chose me this spring, sort of, were the "Killers of the Flower Moon," and "Boomtown," both about Oklahoma, because my wife was reading them and they were the selections after I'd joined the UCO faculty emeritus monthly book club.
Best of Books called last week, telling me Anne Hillerman's new novel, "The Tale Teller," had come in, which I'd pre-ordered. It's set in New Mexico and Arizona, so of course it chose me.
Currently on audio books chosen to listen to in my car, when I was driving across West Texas, is the book "Sapiens," about the history of the human race, full of science and biology and perspective on our continuing evolution as another animal on this planet. Did you know there's some evidence that our brains are getting smaller?
So those are the eight books that have chosen me this spring. They've provoked thought, new ideas, creativity, and a routine of every night, writing down a few quotes and thoughts from those books in a journal.