“There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.”
The morning is lovely, sunny and cool. All the animals are having their naps in all their favorite places. Every now and then I can hear a kid’s voice from down the street and a bird or two, but mostly it’s quiet. I love this kind of morning.
I took my time this morning. The day has lent itself to leisure, to reading the papers slowly, missing nothing, and having an extra cup of coffee. I’m staring at the laundry bag in the hall. It hasn’t moved and neither have I. The morning has brought a contentedness and laundry can wait.
When I was young, I loved summer mornings. They were always the coolest part of the day, and they smelled sweet, of grass and flowers and sometimes rain. I was up and out quickly after a bowl of Rice Krispies and a piece or two of toast. Sometimes I went to the playground; sometimes I rode my bike, and sometimes I’d go uptown to the library, a favorite summer spot. It was always cool on a hot day even though it wasn’t air-conditioned. The floor was highly polished tile. The librarian sat at a round wooden station to check out books. She also had a desk near the mysteries. Sometimes she’d sit there and work. The chairs around the tables were wooden and had fancy backs like captains’ chairs. I was always careful not to scrape mine across the floor when I moved it to sit down at the table to browse through a few books. I’d sit there for a while then I’d return those books to the shelves and start to choose the ones to take home. I always took the maximum.
Books never lasted too long for me. I read them quickly, sometimes in a single long sitting. Books held me enthralled and the day passed unnoticed. When I was older, it was the night which passed unnoticed. I remember finishing a book, looking up and seeing it was morning. That still happens to me.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: books, leisure, library, reading, summer mornings
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
August 21, 2012 at 12:19 pm
I used to do that too. Not so much any more. I’m more likely to fall asleep in a chair and finish the book in my dreams. Sometimes my ending are better and sometimes not.
Carl
August 21, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Carl,
Once a book hooks me, I’m doomed to read and read until it’s done. reluctantly I close the cover and go to bed, usually in the wee hours.
August 21, 2012 at 1:17 pm
When I think back I can’t remember library and summer at the same time 🙂 All other seasons but not summer. Our library was fairly modern and had three legged chairs in the childrens department, I remember that I liked them a lot. But I usually sat in the science and nature department and they had rather uncomfortable chairs.
I too always tried not to scrape the chair when moving it 🙂
I could fall asleep with the book beside me 🙂 It was just too difficult to stop reading a good book 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
August 21, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Let’s praise public libraries!
I’m also a quick reader and as a girl I read nearly half of the youth books there. Located next to my school and since I didn’t have to pay for it, I spent my money for flashlight batteries to read under the blanket at night. You learn to read very fast if batteries are expensive 😉
They also had/have sheet music and the library in the neighbor town even lent vinyls. I loved geography books and the math and astrophysic books helped to save money while I was at university. Back then it was a great source of knowledge, but now it’s often faster and easier to use the internet. (Dear young readers, life was possible before internet!)
Nowadays I have less time to read, but in sleepless nights I often listen to library audio books. They also have a very good CD collection, -who would expect CD’s by The Roches in a german library?
August 21, 2012 at 6:33 pm
Birgit,
I love my little library, an old gingerbread house which is in the historic part of town. I am on the board, and we work so hard to keep up the old building and raise funds.
Mine when I was a kid didn’t have sheet music but it had vinyl, and I borrowed records all the time.
I had a light over my headboard. It was plastic. I used to pile the bed with blankets so I could hide under the covers and read. It would get so hot I’d melt the light. My mother couldn’t understand how that happened.
When i go on long trips, I always bring books on CD’s.
You’re right-The Roches?
August 21, 2012 at 6:06 pm
I don’t think there’s anything better than an all-nighter with a satisfying read (except maybe for an all-nighter with favorite friends).
August 21, 2012 at 6:34 pm
sprite,
I totally agree with both of them! I went out to dinner with a friend the other night, and we talked about ll those all nighters we used to have. We both agreed we’d need to nap now.
August 21, 2012 at 6:22 pm
4 days and counting. . . I re-read the Hardy Boys until I memorized them.
August 21, 2012 at 6:38 pm
Z&Me,
Yup, today was buy animals supplies day and bring up the luggage. I have a huge list for tomorrow!
August 21, 2012 at 7:26 pm
Today it rained again and the temperature has been around 80 degrees. I expect at least one or more blasts of summer before autumn makes it’s way to North Texas.
When I was a kid I loved the library and spent many summer days reading books, magazines and just rummaging through the stacks. Later I discovered a paperback book store near my house and began spending my allowance buying paperback books that I could keep and read at my leisure. I still have a nice collection of both hard back and paperback books but I am enthralled with digital ones. I enjoy being able to carry around a large number of books on my iPad and read portions of each. I am able to bookmark my favorite places, highlight my favorite text and even take notes and search the book for keywords and phrases. I just have to remember to keep the battery on my iPad charged.
August 21, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Bob,
Your weather has been wonderful of late. I hope that’s a sign it will stay that way.
I used to spend my $.50 allowance on cardboard cover books like Trixie Beldon and Donna Parker. I still have several of them.
I love print books, but I also love digital books. My iPad is filled, ready for my trip to Ghana. I have an international recharger so I’ll have books for the whole trip.
August 21, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Hi Kat,
Many’s the time I’ve gotten lost in a book, come out a few hours later wondering what the noise was and realising it was birds singing their dawn songs.
Once, in my late teens or early twenties I had a Harlan Ellison/Cordwainer Smith lost weekend. I’d gotten a bunch of books by those two authors and spent the entire weekend on the front porch sofa reading all of them. I was a little disoriented by the end of the last book but it did make the rest of the week seem real. 🙂
When I was in first and second grade my branch library was in a little red school house that had been converted for the purpose. It was closed a very long time ago and converted into a house.
I loved that little library. It was very close to my school and my house. During the school year the teachers would walk us over there once a week and my mother would often take us there during the summer.
The librarian was a tall, thin old woman who wore cardigans and sensible shoes and kept her steel grey hair in a tight bun. I did not like her very much. She would not let me read books beyond my age group even though I had read all the books in my age group and my reading comprehension was somewhere around 10th grade level. When I asked why I couldn’t read those books, she said that if she let me read books beyond my age group, there wouldn’t be any books left for people in those age groups to read. An answer like that really means “you’re a little kid and I don’t have to give you a rational answer so go away.” I learned that the library was not the place for me. If I want to read something, I buy it.
Such trauma! 😀
I was in the treatment room all day so I don’t know what kind of day it was. Hope your day was good.
August 21, 2012 at 10:55 pm
Hi Caryn,
First, are you okay? Treatment room with no explanation?
Books do that-they capture us and won’t let go until we’re finished. It started when I was a kid, and I’d read until my mother threatened to come up stairs then I’d turn off the light and sneak it back on later.
You would love my little library. It is lovely and crammed with a fine collection and a wonderful children’s room.
Like you, I finished most of the books in the child’s room, and they wouldn’t let me go into the adult room as I wasn’t old enough. My mother intervened and all of a sudden I had shelves and shelves of new books to read. There was even an upstairs where I loved to roam and find books.
I buy the newest books from my favorite authors. I still like the feel of a book in my hand though I do use my iPod for reading as well. I have lived my life with print and an hard-pressed to let it go.
August 22, 2012 at 8:40 am
Massage treatment room. I was getting one and giving one so definitely okay! 🙂
I am also a licensed massage therapist and still do a few hours every week to keep my hand in (so to speak). Sorry I did not elaborate and thanks for asking.
I gave up print very easily even though I thought I would not. I realized it was the content and not the paper/ink that I loved.
August 21, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Ah and then there was the space I loved so much, the comics. Published on a weekly basis we were treated on different days to the delights of the Eagle, Beano, Dandy, Hornet, Century 21, Hotspur and my favorite The Victor starring Al Tupper, The tough of the track.
In later years I was smitten with the brilliance of Bill Tidy and his Fosdyke Saga which was in the Mirror and The Cloggies which ran in Private Eye.
There are wonderful cartoon books scattered all over my family room table, shipped from amazon uk and lugged home…let me go check out Giles The History of the World
And if you have never met Roger Ditchley and the rest of the Fosdykes, go check out Bill’s work..heck I believe you can even find it in libraries.
August 21, 2012 at 11:06 pm
My Dear Hedley,
Nope, none of them are familiar to me. I have been letting my fingers Google walk so I can learn more.
My comics were Superman, Bat Man and all the other super heroes, Archie, and when I was younger-Little Lulu, Casper and Dot. Then I found Classic Illustrated, and I read as many as many as I could find. They led me to the whole story and reading the classics.
I never bought many comics-my money went to books. Comics were fun but just not enough.
August 22, 2012 at 9:05 am
There was always time for Billy Bunter, Just William and the Famous Five.
Tidy ran a brilliant cartoon and ended up in a battle with Murdoch and didnt compromise.
Comics were once woven in to the fabric of childhood. At its height The Dandy was selling over 2M copies a week. Today it is a fortnightly publication selling less than 8,00 copies and destined for the scrap heap later in the year. Desperate Dan and Cow Pie will be gone.
August 21, 2012 at 11:40 pm
Yes, I remember visiting the library on summer afternoons, and then would stop at a little soda fountain on my way back home. They had the best cherry cokes and they put a pretzel on the straw. Bonus! A Nancy Drew mystery and a cherry coke. It didn’t get any better than that!
August 22, 2012 at 9:50 am
Rita,
Nice to hear from you-hope all is well!
I was a vanilla coke fan at my soda fountain. I used to love watching the “soda jerk” make it.
Nope, Nancy Drew and a coke-can’t beat it!!
August 22, 2012 at 9:45 am
Caryn,
Whew!