These Boots Are Made For Walking: Including a Secret Book Review

I wrote a couple of posts a while back about finding an almost new pair of walking boots. I needed a new pair and there they were, lying at the side of the road, just waiting for me to find them. Furthermore, I contemplated the mystery of how lucky I had been to just find a decent pair of boots, it was as if I had manifested them to appear out of nothing. I should be so lucky! 

There then followed even more boot related strange events.

A few weeks later, I was shopping in a charity shop, looking for books. I've written a couple of posts about this shop, as it regularly has a five books for a pound offer. When writing about the boots, I had mentioned the Law of Attraction. Now, I can't say I'm a believer in it, but I'm intrigued by strange coincidences that life often throws up. Another one was about to present itself.  

As I was looking through the books on offer, one that caught my attention was The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.  Now, this is a charity shop with a relatively small selection of books on offer, yet here was a copy of the Law of Attraction bestseller that was very popular in the mid 2000s.  I can remember being at a friend's house and the Law of Attraction was being discussed on the Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah was really into it.  So, I had to buy it.

I have now read it. It is an easy read, in part made up of quotes from Law of Attraction practitioners. It's all very positive and destiny in your own hands kind of stuff, but the idea that it is science based I have never found convincing. More spiritual than science. One of the chapters tells us how we are responsible for any medical condition that we may have, which I am tempted to say is hogwash. The overall impression is that to succeed with the Law of Attraction, you have to believe.  Any questioning or deviation in believing will be the reason you fail. It's also quite religious and Christian based. What if you are not religious?

My series of coincidences continued in that same charity shop visit as another book that I picked up that day was Happy, by Derren Brown. Brown is an English entertainer, magician, mentalist, illusionist, and writer.  Happy is his attempt to address the question that we all ask at some point in life, perhaps often, what makes us happy? 

Little did I know when I bought Happy that chapter two would question the Law of Attraction and The Secret.  Needless to say, Brown is sceptical about the claims made in The Secret. I have not read the whole book yet, it is 528 pages long, quite an effort from someone who does not claim to be an expert on the subject, but so far, I have found it to be a good read. So did many others, as it became Sunday Times bestseller. Like The Secret, Happy found a market, although I doubt that Brown spent too much time trying to manifest sales.

But what about those boots?  I do wear them frequently and they are a perfect fit. There is certainly something unusual about them, a magical quality.  I was wearing them the other day on a long trek when I looked down at the ground and there was a £2 coin looking for a new home. I obliged. 

I wonder what the next mysterious coincidence will be?

Charity Shop Book Haul: Another haul

I made another visit to a local charity shop that regularly runs five books for a pound sale.  This is what I bought this time.

1) Pause by Daniella Marchant. How to press pause before life does it for you.  Has a 3.79 rating on Goodreads.

2) The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.  Has a 3.73 rating on Goodreads. I don't really buy all this Law of Attraction stuff, but I thought that given how it cost twenty pence, I would finally read the book. It also has something to do with a pair of boots I found recently.

3) Happy by Derren Brown.  Has a 4.06 rating on Goodreads.  I see a trend here.  Three self-help type books in a row.  Interesting.

4) The Meaning of Sport by Simon Barnes.  Has a 3.78 rating on Goodreads. I like sport, so for 20 pence this was an easy pick.  We will see.

5) A field Full of Butterflies — Memories of a Romany Childhood, by Rosemary Penfold.  Has a 3.67 rating on Goodreads. The lowest Goodreads rating here. Having written a memoir myself, (well, the only book I've written) it is a genre that I like, a real life story. 

So, plenty more to read and all five for a pound.  

These Boots Are Made For Walking: Something Wild and the Law of Attraction — Part two

A few days after I found my “new” walking boots, I was looking through my book collection for something to read.  I say collection, it's not that large, perhaps two to three hundred books. It is mainly the ones that have survived various culls over the years. Books that I have read, or unlikely to read, I often give to charity shops.   

Books can take up a lot of space.  When I was a young boy, I lived near a couple of neighbours who had large book collections, all in book cases that covered the walls of a room in their house.  Between them, they could have opened a bookshop. I wondered if I would ever have the same, not a bookshop, but a house with a room or a study with lots of books.  The answer has turned out to be no. The books I have tended to be housed in different places, some stored away, hidden away.  Occasionally I would remember to go and look at them and pick one to read.  

This time I settled for one that had been sitting in a pile of books for some time.  It was in used condition and I had probably picked it up at a charity shop or car boot sale. It was something that I had looked at many times and put down, never quite being in the mood to read.  It was a book by Cheryl Strayed called Wild. Part memoir and part travel adventure, it tells of her journey to walk the Pacific Coast Trail.  I thought to myself, it's about time I read this, or at least a few chapters to see if it is worth reading.  I can usually tell after two or three chapters if a book has got me interested, and I really want to read more.

These Boots Are Made For Walking…and The Law of Attraction — Part One

About a month ago, I was out walking when the thought came to me that I really needed a new pair of walking boots.  The walking boots that I was wearing, more of a walking shoe really, had seen better days.  The sole was beginning to show wear and tear, clearly damaged from years of pounding the pavements and walking country paths.  I had put in the mileage on my footwear, and it was time for a new pair.  

I knew that a new pair of walking boots would not be cheap.  A good quality pair with a decent hard wearing sole is always likely to cost a little more.  The ones with softer tread on the sole never last me that long.  They may look good, but they don't last.  As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, but I do like to get a bargain.  That is not so easy in these Cost of Living crisis times.  Mind you I've always lived a fairly frugal life and when it comes to footwear I've usually managed to find a bargain, either from a charity shop or a car boot sale (flea market in the USA).  I couldn't rely on that happening this time, but I wondered if my current walking boots would hold out until a bargain came along. 

The need for a new pair of boots was on my mind.

And then something strange happened.  Really strange.