08-04-2023, 05:52 PM
Somewhat late, but that's ok, we are too engrossed in our books to notice.
The mind works in mysterious, and sometimes suspicious ways.
Many years ago I found a book in a 2nd hand shop by Tom Neale, called An Island To Oneself. It is about the times he spent living alone on deserted Suvarov Island...in the book his 2 times there, but in the real world he went back a 3rd time. It made an impression on me, it resonates with others who crave solitude. When we lived on Waiheke Island there was no Public Library then, just a Community Library of donated books, and we donated a lot of our books, and this must've been one of them.
On a motorcycle forum I'm on someone started a thread - Hermits, Recluses, Lookouts and lighthouse Keepers, asking if anyone had done it. A few live off the grid, but a true life alone is rare these days. I mentioned An Island To Oneself, and someone said he had the book, and read it at least once a year. So that set me on the trail to get my book back...I found a hardback on Amazon - $1,200 US ! Even paperbacks are 2 or 3 hundred. A local women runs a Book Fair at the community hall, and other places as well....she keeps her books in one of the storage containers at work, and at the moment lives in the back yard in her truck. I had a look for it in the hall but didn't find it, and asked her, that I guess she didn't know every book she had, but, did she have it. Half an hour later she gives it to me....she has a box labelled Russia and Pacific, I just saw Russia and moved on. She charges $3 per book, I gave her $4 for the prompt service.
So, just by thinking about it, my book has found it's way back to me. I am going to loan it to a friend, well she won't say we are friends, she shuns humans and leads a live of few friends. One of her daughters asked what would be her perfect life, and she just drew a picture...an island with one palm tree, and the stick figure of herself. So, this book is destined for her.
I do have some slight connection to the book too. The company A B Donald had interests in the Cook Islands and others, and they had a boat, or others that traded their products around the islands, and Tom was a friend of the skipper, and used the boat to get to Suvarov....and bought many of his supplies from the Donalds store. In the mid '80's I worked for one of the Donald's, and he knew all about Tom Neale, and went to the islands aboard the same boat, with the same skipper. Then on Waiheke I worked with a woman from Raro, and I mentioned Tom Neale - ''Oh, Uncle Tom ! He used to come and visit us in Glenn Innes.'' And she told me he went back a 3rd time, and had married in Raro and had kids, which is not in the book.
The mind works in mysterious, and sometimes suspicious ways.
Many years ago I found a book in a 2nd hand shop by Tom Neale, called An Island To Oneself. It is about the times he spent living alone on deserted Suvarov Island...in the book his 2 times there, but in the real world he went back a 3rd time. It made an impression on me, it resonates with others who crave solitude. When we lived on Waiheke Island there was no Public Library then, just a Community Library of donated books, and we donated a lot of our books, and this must've been one of them.
On a motorcycle forum I'm on someone started a thread - Hermits, Recluses, Lookouts and lighthouse Keepers, asking if anyone had done it. A few live off the grid, but a true life alone is rare these days. I mentioned An Island To Oneself, and someone said he had the book, and read it at least once a year. So that set me on the trail to get my book back...I found a hardback on Amazon - $1,200 US ! Even paperbacks are 2 or 3 hundred. A local women runs a Book Fair at the community hall, and other places as well....she keeps her books in one of the storage containers at work, and at the moment lives in the back yard in her truck. I had a look for it in the hall but didn't find it, and asked her, that I guess she didn't know every book she had, but, did she have it. Half an hour later she gives it to me....she has a box labelled Russia and Pacific, I just saw Russia and moved on. She charges $3 per book, I gave her $4 for the prompt service.
So, just by thinking about it, my book has found it's way back to me. I am going to loan it to a friend, well she won't say we are friends, she shuns humans and leads a live of few friends. One of her daughters asked what would be her perfect life, and she just drew a picture...an island with one palm tree, and the stick figure of herself. So, this book is destined for her.
I do have some slight connection to the book too. The company A B Donald had interests in the Cook Islands and others, and they had a boat, or others that traded their products around the islands, and Tom was a friend of the skipper, and used the boat to get to Suvarov....and bought many of his supplies from the Donalds store. In the mid '80's I worked for one of the Donald's, and he knew all about Tom Neale, and went to the islands aboard the same boat, with the same skipper. Then on Waiheke I worked with a woman from Raro, and I mentioned Tom Neale - ''Oh, Uncle Tom ! He used to come and visit us in Glenn Innes.'' And she told me he went back a 3rd time, and had married in Raro and had kids, which is not in the book.
In and out of jobs, running free
Waging war with society
Waging war with society