Books, ebooks and minimalism

I have been living a minimalist life, downsizing and trying to keep possessions to a minimum since the 1990s.

Lately I've been thinking about books, keeping them or letting them go.

Mostly I don't regret clearing out the majority of my books but I've realized that there is justification for keeping books that you've read.  If you have a physical copy of a book you can check back to remind yourself of the content and particularly of the ending.  Just having it there provides an awareness of what is was about, what it meant to you.  I mainly buy ebooks now and they are always there but it's not the same as having them on a shelf.  I find at times when I'm opening an ebook that I will look at what I've recently read and it's like I remember it but I have in a way forgotten about reading it.  A book on a shelf keeps you aware that you've read it.

So one of the things in life with contradictory feelings connected to it.  I like having books around but I don't like clutter or owning a lot of things.

Food. (Jan 19/24)

 

I'm old.    I live alone.   I have digestive issues.

I have never liked cooking and nowadays it just feels like so much effort and mess.

The list of food items that I can no longer eat is very long:  peppers, onions, cucumbers, spices of any kind, some herbs, tomato sauce, anything really greasy...

There are lots of frozen entree type things available but they generally add things for flavouring or colour (spices, garlic, onions, peppers, etc) which means I can't eat them.  Not to forget the generally huge salt and fat content.  Also, the portion size is ridiculously small.

The reason I started this post was that I was thinking about bologna and wieners.  These are foods that I now get terrible ingestion from and of course fat, salt, spices.  But I have always loved them and it would be wonderful if I could just rely on bologna and hot dogs as my meat consumption. I'd be happy to eat them six days a week.  Or some weeks, seven.

I now mainly buy ground meat in large packages.  I fry that up and remove as much grease as I can and then divide it into portions for the freezer.  

Lately I seem to have turned against vegetables which is a surprise because I've always like them in the past.  I eat them because they're "good for me" but I don't like them.  I find now the best way to manage them is to use a packet of instant broth (of course, again, salt) and cook them as soup.

I've written before about my dislike for brown rice and brown bread.  I recently tried whole wheat bread again and ended up throwing half the loaf out.

Have I written all this before?  I wonder.  This blog has been around for a long time and I don't know when I last looked back at any of it