Choosing Books for Lessons

I seem to have this funny sense when I choose a book for my future lessons. Perhaps it's a bit like shopping for a birthday gift that is intended for someone else, but ends up tickling one's own fancy much more. It could also mean, perhaps more accurately, the thrill of starting something new with children and having those young minds be exposed to something that also gives you  some basic joy. And of course---the thrill doesn't last, and it has its ups and downs. But there is always hope at the very beginning, which drives me through the many hours I put into forming the course outlines and syllabus
   Each time I design the class, I keep trying to look for better ways to teach. More importantly, I look for new things that I hadn't taught, much less thought about, before. I think it's important never to say, "well, this has all been done before", but to keep rediscovering the same themes in slightly different variations. This is perhaps about beginner's mind, but it also might relate to not giving up or becoming jaded.
   If I think about how a teacher must feel, marking the same assignment many times or reading the same books each semester, I begin to wonder how teachers can keep the material fresh enough in their minds that they might discover something new to reflect on. Teachers can either get into a routine, or try to build on what they learned before (what works or doesn't work), or they might just try to see the books in totally different ways, using the lenses of other things they are developing in their lives. In any case, all of these concerns I am developing are related to a question I am passionate about, and that is how teachers remain grateful and happy beings, even in the midst of the turmoils they face in schools and with the very unpredictable learners they are faced with.
   Books should always be discoveries, even if they turn out to be not what I expected to discover. I can only hope that the love of discovery itself is never squelched in me, no matter what situations we are facing as a society in these recent times.