“Andrew, if I should not see you again, I wish you to remember and treasure up some things I have already said to you: in this world you will have to make your own way. To do that you must have friends. You can make friends by being honest, and you can keep them by being steadfast. You must keep in mind that friends worth having will in the long run expect as much from you as they give to you. To forget an obligation or be ungrateful for a kindness is a base crime–not merely a fault or a sin, but an actual crime. Men guilty of it sooner or later must suffer the penalty. In personal conduct be always polite but never obsequious. None will respect you more than you respect yourself. Avoid quarrels as long as you can without yielding to imposition. But sustain your manhood always. Never bring a suit in law for assault and battery or for defamation. The law affords no remedy for such outrages that can satisfy the feelings of a true man. Never wound the feelings of others. Never brook wanton outrage upon your own feelings. If you ever have to vindicate your feelings or defend you honor, do it calmly. If angry at first, wait till your wrath cools before you proceed.”

“You cannot have forgotten the advice I give to all my young friends,” Jackson wrote an acquaintance in 1826, ” that is to say, as they pass through life have apparent confidence in all, real confidence in none, until from actual experience it is found that the individual is worthy of it–from this rule I have never departed…When I have found men mere politicians, bending to the popular breeze and changing with it, for the self-popularity, I have ever shunned them, believing that they were unworthy of my confidence–but still treat them with hospitality and politeness.”

I’m a one book at a time sort of gal. But I have tried and am trying again to have a fiction audiobook going at the same time (in theory it should work, especially if I’m reading a non-fiction book, which I am).

The idea is that I will read the non-fiction/heavier stuff throughout the day when I’m alert (in a state of activity), and listen to the fiction book (usually a cozy mystery, which is a favorite genre of mine) in the evening before bed (in a state of rest).

I started this series a while ago and I’ve enjoyed it immensely. Completing it up until the latest one has become one of those silent projects in the back of my mind that I need to account for. I also have a backlog of other books sitting on my shelf that I want to read.

So I’m trying again to make this work. The other times I’ve done it I’ve gotten frustrated because I either feel like my attention is divided and/or I end up saying to myself “let me complete this one and then I’ll get back to the other.”

So here we go one more time, hopefully successfully. If not, I’ll just let the idea go and either my shelf or this series will go on the back burner.

^{Sidebar: I am not a fan of digital books, I like paper books, I like to hold it, feel it, write in it, & mark it up. I like to curl up under the covers with it, resting the book on my legs laying on my comfy pillow and turn the pages. If I love it, I keep a copy on my shelf. But I have come to have an appreciation for the audiobook. And I possibly would have an appreciation for digital books if I traveled more (you don’t have to carry your books with you, you can just take it with you on your iPad, Kindle, whatever you use), but I don’t travel that much nor with that many books.}