rachel’s blog

If I agreed with the title of a book I received for Christmas, I wouldn’t be posting this. According to author Margaret Mason, “No One Cares What You Had for Lunch.”

I beg to differ.

I’m sure that somewhere out there, someone cares that I ate pita for lunch today. (You do, don’t you?) More than that, you might even want to know how I made it. If you’ve never considered baking your own pita, I highly recommend it. It’s even slightly entertaining… if you have an oven with a window. The flat dough puffs up and forms a pocket, just like a well-behaved pita should.

I know you’re not supposed to care what I had for lunch today, but I ate my fresh, warm pita with fresh, warm roasted red pepper hummus. Mmm. There are as many hummus variations as there are camels in Egypt, so I didn’t bother to write down my hummus recipe.

This whole wheat pita recipe is one I found online years ago and have modified slightly. Note: the oven temperature isn’t a typo. The hotter the better!

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. warm water
1/2 t. sugar
2 t. active dry yeast
1/4 t. salt
2 1/2 - 3 c. whole wheat flour

Directions:

1. Place water and sugar in a large bowl and stir. Add yeast and stir slightly. Let rest for 5 minutes. Mix in salt and flour gradually.

2. Knead well for 5 minutes. Place the dough in a bowl and lightly coat it with oil. Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Divide dough into 8 balls. Roll out each ball to make 1/4-inch thick rounds. Lightly dust each side with flour by rubbing it with floured hands. Let rest covered for 20 minutes. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 5-8 minutes or until lightly browned.

Somebody please tell me why I went to the library tonight when I already own plenty of books I haven’t read yet. Is this normal behavior? (I’m afraid it is.) Actually, I had a book on reserve that I wanted to pick up, but I decided to browse the shelves just for fun. I came home with six books. Six? What was I thinking?

I usually check out the “new book” shelf, and I almost always find an interesting title or two. Tonight I saw a book called “All The Good Ones Aren’t Taken.” The blurb on the back starts off: “If you always experience the same unhappy endings in your relationships, then All The Good Ones Aren’t Taken is the book for you.” I snorted and put the silly book back on the shelf. Perhaps if I had more happy beginnings I’d have more unhappy endings.

As I was browsing an aisle upstairs, another title caught my eye: “The Very New Christmas Make-It Book.” It looked old. I pulled it from the shelf and checked out the copyright date. 1954! “Very new?” I flipped through it just for kicks. My family should be very glad I didn’t find this book BEFORE Christmas.

Isn’t that the sweetest little handi-wrap poodle you’ve ever seen?

I don’t think I’d make a very good criminal. Tonight I released my very first book through BookCrossing, and in spite of the fact that it was completely legal, it was nerve-wracking!!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, BookCrossing is a website that enables the tracking of books that people release “into the wild” — on a park bench, at a coffee shop, in the locker room at the gym, or wherever random books are likely to be picked up.

The book I chose to release was a novel with a pink cover that I bought for a dollar at a used book store on Saturday. The title caught my attention because it had been mentioned several times in Sara Nelson’s “So Many Books, So Little Time.” I decided to read through the book over the weekend so I could release it whenever the timing was right.

Since I’m not an experienced BookCrosser, I wanted to play it safe by releasing the book in such a way that no one would find it until I had fled the scene. After all, I didn’t want someone running after me to tell me that I had forgotten my book! I was also paranoid that someone would see me abandon the book and think I was planting a bomb or something!! OK, so I’m probably one of the least suspicious-looking people on the planet, but since everyone is paranoid about everything these days, I guess I was too.

After I registered the book on BookCrossing, I printed out a label to tape inside the front cover, which included the book’s ID number, a catchy explanation of BookCrossing, and the cute running-book logo. On a bright green Post-it note I wrote “FREE BOOK,” and then stuck the note on the front cover. I was ready for the release.

This evening I tucked the book into my handbag and headed out to run a few errands. When I walked into Target, I tried to act as nonchalant as possible, even though all I could think about was the concealed book I was carrying. As I meandered through the clothing section, I was slightly distressed to see that there were THREE employees working at the fitting room counter. Too risky. I spent more than enough time looking through the racks of shirts, sweaters, and pants until two of the employees left.

I soon made my way over to the fitting room, where the girl in red gave me a plastic tag with the number 6 on it. After trying on the items (nothing fit), I pulled the book out of my bag and laid it down on the red bench inside my tiny room. I felt like I was stealing something. The green “FREE BOOK” note looked too goofy, so I flipped the book over. Just then, the fitting room monitor got a phone call, which was the perfect time for me to make my exit. Bye-bye book.

I was sure the fitting room chick would see the suspicious book as soon as I left and immediately notify security, who would apprehend me at the front doors. I wanted to run out of the store, but I think I managed to walk at a normal pace. I said hello to a colleague of mine near the exit (she could serve as a character witness, right?)… and then I was out. How would the fitting room monitor describe me to the bomb squad? Did she notice that I was wearing red shoes? Would the security cameras see me get into my car and drive out of the parking lot? Have other BookCrossers felt like this, or am I the only crazy one?!

Yesterday I had lunch with some friends, and I was telling them about my 101-in-1001 list. Sarah asked me which thing was the scariest, but I couldn’t think of anything on my list that I’d describe as “scary.” I certainly would have never guessed that releasing a book through BookCrossing might fit into that category!

As my faithful readers already know, one of my resolutions for 2007 is to do new things. Unfortunately, the new things I have done so far this year have been incredibly underwhelming. (Yes, that’s a real word.) The only new thing I have done so far in February is to order books online… and I only did that because I had a gift card. My two books arrived today in a box that could have held a dozen more.

One of the books I ordered was “Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings” by Henri Nouwen. That’s really all I know about the book, but since I have appreciated several of Nouwen’s other books, I have no doubt that this one will be meaningful as well. The reading for each day includes scripture, two meditations (selected from 15 of Nouwen’s 40 books), and prayer. For those who are not aware, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (a little over two weeks from now) and concludes on Easter Sunday.

Would you be interested in joining me on this Lenten journey? If you’re looking for a new spiritual practice to engage in during Lent, I invite you to buy “Show Me the Way” and read it while I do. I’d be interested in discussing the book with others who are reading it, but even if you decide not to join me, I may occasionally share my thoughts and reflections on it here and invite your response.

I was sprawled on my couch facing west as I finished reading “Facing East: A Pilgrim’s Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy” by Frederica Mathewes-Green. The people I was with when I started reading the book in early January probably felt a secret pity for me, thinking that I was deriving pleasure from studying heavy texts on Orthodox theology. Not at all. “Facing East” is personal, down-to-earth, even entertaining.

Last week, while my bookmark was stuck between pages eighty and eighty-one (January was busy, OK?), I had the privilege of attending a dinner event at which Frederica read selections from several of her books. The evening was delightful, and I could still hear her voice and her laughter echoing through the pages as I finished reading the book last night.

The chapters are structured around the Orthodox liturgical calendar, and although the church year begins on September 1, the book begins and ends with preparation for Lent in February. With warmth, honesty, and humor, Frederica tells the stories of a year in the life of the small Orthodox church in Maryland where her husband is known as Father Gregory. Interwoven with these stories, of course, is a wonderful introduction and welcome to the ancient and often mysterious world of icons, rituals, fasts, music, incense, prayers, and other rich traditions of Orthodoxy. I had plenty of “that makes so much sense!” moments.

While I had previously known little about Orthodoxy, it always struck me as being stuffy, foreign, and old. Well, it IS old! But “Facing East” showed me that the Orthodox church is also interesting, accessible, and alive!

P.S. I got a kick out of finding my name hidden in the middle of a word in the book! Epitrachelion is described in the glossary as “the stole of priesthood.”

On December 27, 2005, I sat down with my journal and a pen to develop some New Year’s Resolutions for 2006. One of the resolutions I listed was to “read one book a month.” I knew it was a very reasonable goal, but since I hadn’t been reading much more than the newspaper (and a random book now and then), I knew it would take persistent effort to develop this as a regular practice in my life.

Unlike the other resolutions I made for 2006, I actually achieved my goal of reading one book a month… and then some. By the end of the year, I had read a total of twenty-five books. I discovered half of those simply by browsing at the public library, and in fact, I borrowed 23 of the 25 from the library. (The other two I bought at a thrift store!) I selected two books from the New York Times’ “Best Books of 2005″ list, and I also sought out two books by Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri. The remainder I learned about in a variety of ways.

I would recommend almost all of the books I read last year, but if I had to choose my favorite, it would definitely be “The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade” by Ann Fessler. The title is quite self-explanatory, and the book is both well-written and incredibly fascinating!

Occasionally I have asked people what books they would recommend, and invariably their initial response is, “Well, what kind of books do you like to read?” Silly people. I want to know what books THEY like to read! Besides, I don’t limit myself to one genre, so I’m never sure how to answer the question. I know I often enjoy biographies, but if you look at my list and can help me find an answer for the “what do you like to read” question, let me know!