The Reader

The Reader by Fragonard

A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.

                                                          Chinese Proverb

I love books almost as much as I love art. These two passions consume my time and my money. I am never without a book on my bedside table; in fact, there is a stack of books several feet high on the floor, all waiting to be read. There is bad weather in the forecast for this weekend and you can be sure that I'll have my nose in a book, and it won't be an e-book. I love the feel and smell of books. They have been my constant friend and companion. I have many favourites but some that have left a lingering essence in my psyche include: The Bell Jar, Anna Karenina, Little Women, Charlotte's Web, Heidi, The Fountainhead, Mrs. Dalloway, Emma, Tess of the Duberville....

What are you reading? Do you have any favourites to share with me?

An Homage to The Bell Jar

The Choices

Mixed Media (Japanese Paper, Mylar, Ink) 5x5 framed in shadow box

Copyright of Ingrid Mida 2010

"I had locked myself in the bathroom, and run a tub full of warm water, and taken out a Gillette blade.

When they asked some old Roman philosopher or other how he wanted to die, he said he would open his veins in a warm bath. I thought it would be easy, lying in the tub and seeing the redness flower from my wrists, flush after flush through the clear water, till I sank to sleep under a surface as gaudy as poppies.

But when it came right down to it, the skin of my wrist looked so white and defencless that I couldn't do it. It was as if what I wanted to kill wasn't in that skin or the thin blue pulse that jumped under my thumb, but somewhere else, deeper, more secret, and a whole lot harder to get at." 

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, page 142