This week’s Welcome to My World blog challenge question is what new thing have you learned this last week?
I learned that crushed eggshells DON’T stop snails.
But this post isn’t about snails or eggshells or my half-eaten sprouts. It’s about…well, I’m guessing you read the title.
I admit to researching—strictly from curiosity—books about my garden foe. There are lots of children’s books with fictional snail characters. But only a few snail books appeared in the adult nonfiction category with titles like, the world of snails and snail farming.
Regardless of age or topic, fiction and nonfiction can entertain and be educational.
My preference is nonfiction. In fact, my interest in real-life accounts began with slick magazines.
Their charming essays, striking captions, and feature stories drew me to the many creative lifestyles and elegant words.
When my monthly issue of Victoria arrived in the mail, I’d plop onto the sofa, recline with my knees pulled up, and then rest the magazine against my legs. I’d turn to the last page, delight in the writer’s childhood memories of summers on the lake, Sundays after church, that last remaining china cup filled with tea, and more.
The essays so inspirited me I wanted to write my own. This is how God began a work in me to become a writer.
I didn’t know at the time that reading essays in Country Living and Victoria magazines was part of God’s plan for my life. I simply enjoyed the lovely stories. It was through these narratives that I related to the musings of Bo Niles. Some of my favorite lines written by her include:
“While I work, tall grasses whisper to me. I listen to them, and feel good.”
Country Living October 1995
“That is the best thing about traditions. They grow to embrace other traditions, like a tree with many branches.”
Country Living December 1995
“We cannot let the sense of wonder wither and die in our children. It is the key to our humanity.”
Country Living July 1997
At bookstores, I browse the nonfiction section first. I love books about people who accomplished a dream. Who beat the odds and established a hopeful path for others. Who learned to trust God with their careers, hobbies, or personal growth.
I also look through the fiction books offered on display tables. For me, fiction is about the author’s creativity, skill, and compelling characters I love or love to hate. (The latter group sure stirs us up, doesn’t it?) Fiction allows me to get lost in the writer’s make-believe mind and experience extraordinary plots. I can go through a time machine, be a detective, visit fairy lands and make-believe worlds.
At home, I keep my fiction and nonfiction print books on different shelves. They are almost equal in number. But nonfiction wins. On my Nook and Kindle, fiction wins.
Dianne Marie Andre 
Okay, our snail experience differs. 🙂
The only place I’ve tried crushed eggshells is with my Amaryllis. I inherited a large pottery container with a number of stunning scarlet blooms, when my sister-in-law passed away. I was terrified, as I can kill any plant in no time at all. She’d had this pot going for years.
Several years went by and the blooms got more and more lovely. Then one day, they started to droop and die. When I studied the soil, I discovered they were being eaten by these nasty little snails. Upon advice from a friend, we collected eggshells for the next days, sprinkling them all over the surface of the soil. Sure enough, we haven’t been bothered by them since. Every now and then we spot one and we rush for new eggshells.
Thanks for the lovely post. Oh, and I love fiction and non-fiction – but only Christian books that uplift.
I’m glad eggshells saved your special memory plant. I’ve decided that my snails can jump!
I’m a real bookworm. In my case, it was fiction that inspired my young mind to start writing. Being born with an exceptionally large imagination probably helped the course along 😉
Madeleine, how I wish I had your “exceptionally large” imagination.
Dianne It is amazing what these snails get up to and I literally mean up. They are on the ceiling of our varandah. They are a real menace.
Oh, dear. On the ceiling? I think I got rid of most of mine, with a stomp. Replaced the eaten sprouts with plants they don’t favor.
Diane, I can totally relate! I veer more towards non-fiction. A saying that resonates with me is ‘I am everything that I have read’.
Blogginhbev, haha, I better make sure I read only uplifting books that encourage Godly behavior!
Like you I am a total bookworm. I love the non-fiction true-life stories, but also historical fiction that was based on people’s real lives In a different time.
Deryn, I love print books best, but for evening or early morning reading before the sun rises, I’m grateful for my Nook. No need for a lamp or ceiling light while I’m still in bed, too lazy to get up.