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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Bookends (01/30/14)
For days I have been pondering bookends. I have spent more time thinking about bookends than a normal human should spend thinking about anything. Yet, I have this deadline looming, and as a writer with a challenge, I want to write and write well. What do I say about bookends? This is now becoming a personal challenge for myself – can I really write anything of value about bookends? A part of me is tempted to just skip this week, but I committed to writing at the beginning of the year, so I must write. Who will win – this word bookends or me?

For inspiration, I pick up my trusty dictionary, hoping to be inspired by the definition for bookends and then create something amazing. “A support….used to keep a row of books upright.”

I know what bookends are. I can’t say that this definition has left me with anything inspiring. So I continue pondering something that I can honestly say I have never pondered in my life, bookends. When I think about bookends, which is all I have been doing for days on end, I think about old mystery shows where a bookend may have been used as some weapon or some clue. They are always heavy and fancy in these shows. Fancy doesn’t fit in a home with three children, and we certainly don’t need any heavy objects to be used as any kind of weapon, so bookends are not something that I have purchased or used.

However, I do have lots of books that end. When I look around at the many shelves of books that I own, trying to figure out what is keeping my wide variety of books held upright, I see personal objects that have a story. In my kitchen, holding my cookbooks in place, is my grandma’s rolling pin. On another shelf in my living room is a jar of seashells that my family collected on our last vacation. There is an old basket filled to overflowing with all my son’s electronic gadgets holding some children’s books upright, but most of my books are held upright by more books that end.

A book that ends well has the power to support the reader in tough times and it can also hold the reader upright when life is trying to knock you down. So, even though there are no fancy bookends holding my books upright, there are many books on my shelves that have held me upright in tough times and books that have supported me through this little journey we call life.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
C D Swanson 
02/06/14
Love the title and I loved your entry.

God bless~
Sara Harricharan
02/09/14
Books are amazing things, aren't they? It's quite a feat, considering that they are just little squiggles of lines that make letters, that make words, that jumble together into sentences and tada, we have a book, that somehow translates into an amazing, emotional experience to be relieved over and over.

Loved your title--I remember reading the topic this week too and thinking "bookends?" what on earth can be written about bookends. But this was a lovely, candid little short and I enjoyed it. Congrats on your resolution-and thanks for sharing!
Larry Whittington
02/09/14
I truly enjoyed reading your thoughts. Your feeling also came through.

Sometimes we just write without knowing what will come out. This may have been how it was with you, even after your much pondering.

Sometimes just starting and let the end come where it may, be the best way.

Nice.