My unread books-owned list has tipped from a comfortably happy list (“Yay! Look how many books I have in front of me to read!”) into a suffocating list (“Oh no! Look how many books I have in front of me to read!”). And yet, I know I will add more to my list this month. An e-book pops up for sale, and I think about how if I don’t grab it now, I won’t be able to read it later because it’s not in the library system or I will be paying full price. Or an author puts out a new book, and I want to own it, not borrow it. So the list grows.

I have a tendency if I own the book to wait to read it. Even if it was top of my TBR before the purchase. I guess my reasoning is that if I own it, I can read it any time. And if I’m borrowing it, I have it for three weeks. And once the library’s license is gone, the opportunity to read it is gone. So I keep bypassing what I own in favour of what I don’t.

I decided to make an effort and read books I own for 15 minutes in the morning. I started with Andrew Sean Greer’s Less. I own it in paper and in e-book form, but I put off reading it for years because I knew I would like it once I read it, and I always wanted it in front of me rather than behind. Probably not the best way to approach my TBR. But now I’m reading it and enjoying it, and I can see myself continuing this trend now that I’ve broken the seal. Hopefully I will at least be able to keep a balance of new books in and old books out.

Every time I find an article on the concept of “lagom,” I pause on it because I know this idea doesn’t come naturally to me. If something is good, I tend to want more of it. Time with the twins is good? I want more of  it. Of course. But I’ve also been known to fall in love with a box of tea and buy excessive amounts of it, or have fun on a trip and want to stuff in more sights or more days. It’s a hard idea for me to wrap my brain around: That just because something is good doesn’t mean that you should have more.

The most recent article was in BigThink.

Many of us have internalized the ideas that bigger means better, that a bank balance means status, and that excess means happiness. Lagom, though, is to enjoy the “just right.” It’s not simply learning to “enjoy the simple things,” but also appreciating that sometimes less really is more.

The examples make sense: “Talking to a friend over a coffee is nice. But meeting with ten friends after ten coffees does not make things better.” Yes, absolutely, true. But at the same time, I kept replacing the example with things I really do want in larger amounts: books, time with people I love, photographs. And in all of those places, more really was more.

What do you think of this idea?

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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A book blogger linked to this post about how a person turned an unused space into a reading nook but gave it an entrance like the wardrobe in the Narnia books. Scroll down through the pictures and see how her kid enters.

I WANT THIS.

We have maybe one closet where this would work — where we could put a wardrobe in front of the opening and enter the closet and have enough room to sit and read. It would be dark inside. But cozy. It kind of feels like the perfect use for a space.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.

I’m reluctant to say “better,” even though we bring back a lot of candy when we travel and often import candy once we’re home. (It’s not that expensive if you batch it and pay for shipping once.) But it is definitely different and definitely preferred.

The top choice (because we’re apparent a bunch of old ladies) is Simpkins travel sweets. They are on the kitchen counter and usually in my purse. (Or, if not, Jila mints or Wilhelmina mints.) I know — probably not the sexy choice, but I love a good travel sweet. And these are my favourite ones.

Favourite chocolate candy (which I haven’t had in years) is Rowntree’s peppermint crisp (which, I guess, is now Nestle peppermint crisp). Close second is the Ritter Sport peppermint. Followed by straight Dairy Milk Cadbury. And then Fry’s peppermint cream. And finally Elite’s mekupelet. I know, it makes no sense why I ranked Cadbury between the two nearly identical peppermint chocolate options, but they are different in texture, and I like the Ritter Sport one better. And I would never transliterate the Hebrew to “mekupelet,” but that’s what came up when I Googled. Strange. It’s like a Cadbury flake, but better.

What are your favourite candies outside your country?

Rosh Hashanah begins this weekend on Sunday night. (I’ll write my Microblog Monday post ahead of time.) For the past two years, we’ve been doing services online. It was weird the first year, but felt more normal the second. We debated for about two seconds whether we’d feel comfortable going masked in-person, and then Josh shrugged his shoulders and said, “Singing?” and it suddenly felt like the decision was made. Services in our pajamas, with our guinea pig.

Is it meaningful? Kind of. I think you need to work harder to connect with the moment, but maybe it keeps me more mindful of what is happening. It’s harder for my mind to wander when I have to focus to hear the person on the screen and follow along.

I hope to go back in-person one day. I’d like to see our friends. But this year, we’re home.

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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.

Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Applying a Lesson Learned from Infertility” (Infertile Phoenix)
• “It Wasn’t Meant To Be” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Finding a Different Path asks an excellent question — even if you go through a similar thing as someone else, do you know how they feel? She makes the distinction: “There is a huge difference between ‘I know what it is experience loss, and I feel for you in your loss’ and ‘I’ve experienced loss, so I know EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL.’ I don’t. No one does.” Perfectly said.

Lastly, By the Brooke gave me all of the feels with her post about an exchange with her daughter. Maybe I processed it through a different frame because I know about the unspoken loss behind the written words, but I thought she captured such a gorgeous moment in a gorgeous way. Holding onto a moment (“I want to remember last night, a warm evening in September.”) and wanting to keep it forever.

The roundup to the Roundup: Happy new year from home. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between September 16 – 23) and not the blog’s main URL. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.