“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
Today has a hint of spring about it. It is a warmish morning, in the mid 40’s. The sun is about, but the sky is cloudy probably practicing for tomorrow when it is supposed to rain. The wind is gone. The dogs are out longer on days like today. Miss Nala naps in the sun. Henry wanders the yard.
I have a concert this afternoon. We are still playing our St. Patrick’s Day music.
My housecleaning has been intermittent. Yesterday it was a few sweatshirt sleeve wipes on the dusty tables in my living room. The hall got vacuumed. That was enough.
When I was a kid, I read all the classics. My mother had bought me Little Woman for Christmas, and that was the start. I loved Treasure Island. In my mind’s eye I knew exactly what Long John Silver looked like, and, when I saw my first Treasure Island movie, he looked just as I had imagined. Books took me away to the most amazing places. I met all sorts of people. One of my favorite characters was Doctor Dolittle. I always wished I could speak with animals. I even wish it now. Nala would be getting a piece of my mind about her thievery, but I do expect she’d talk back. I remember the Bobbsey Twins, two sets of them, Nan and Bert and Freddie and Flossy. I envied their travels. As I got older, I moved into The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. I never stopped to think that their adventures were unrealistic. I was too immersed in the pages.
I could spend an entire day and night reading without noticing the passage of time. On one trip to England, I brought Gone with the Wind with me. I read the whole flight. I was shocked when we got ready for landing. For so many reasons, I was lucky being stationed in Ghana. One reason was because there were libraries and all of the books were in English. I went to my town library often. A shop in my town sold the African Writers’ Series. I brought many of those books home with me.
I can’t imagine a life without books.
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March 14, 2024 at 12:17 pm
Hi Kat,
Like you I also have a long history of loving books. I skipped many of the classic kids books and jumped ahead in the third grade to adult paperback books. I started reading Leon Uris’s books when I was home sick with the flu in the fourth grade. I devoured, “Exodus”, in a week. I remember reading William Shire’s monumental book, ”The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” in the sixth grade. After those books, “Treasure Island”, was too mundane for my taste. I still remember the line from Leon Uris’s book, “Battle Cry”, he was in the Marines in WWII. While in boot camp he made the mistake of calling his rifle a gun. His drill Sargent made him stand outside the barracks holding his rifle in his right hand and his gun, penis”, in his left hand and repeating out loud, “This is my rifle, and this is my gun, one is for fighting and one is for fun”. 🙂
For the last ten or so years I have been reading E-books on my iPad. I subscribe to Bookbub, who send me a daily email list of books, of the type I indicated I liked when I signed up. Most of them are $1.99 from Apple Books. I have several that I bought but haven’t read yet. They take up very little space on the iPad, and they are backed up on my iCloud account. This way I can carry several books easily at once and read sections of each at my leisure. Also, I can highlight passages and take notes in the books.
This doesn’t mean I don’t like good old fashioned bound paper books. I have a wall in my home office with built in book shelves which is completely full of books. There’s a huge used bookstore called, “Half Priced Books”, in Dallas. The main store is a former discount, big box store. They also have local smaller stores around the DFW area. I can spend hours in any of their locations looking for books at greatly reduced prices. Another book source is, “Powell’s City of Books”, in Portland Oregon. They claim to be the largest independent bookstore in the world. I have been to Powell’s and it’s a tossup in my mind for who is the largest book emporium. According to Half Price Books website, they have locations in 19 states.
I can’t imagine life without books either.
March 15, 2024 at 12:00 am
Hi Bob,
I was only 6 when I started reading the classics. This was prompted by my mother who started reading Treasure Island to my brother and me though she stopped so we’d continue on our own. He didn’t. I did. That was the start of my reading all of Robert Louis Stevenson’s books. Once I find an author I like I read all of his or her books. I did it with Stevenson and even Uris. Little Woman was a Christmas gift, and I read the two books which followed it.
I read both e-books and actual books. My iPad too is loaded with books. That started when I first went back to Africa. It was so easy to load my iPad with books. I read quite a few on that trip. I remember packing books when I traveled in the pre-iPad days. I’d finish reading them and then trade for other books. Hostels were great places for book trading. In Quito, I walked from the old city to the new, to the only English language book store in the country. I wanted never to be without a book.
I used to give my mother all the books after I’d finished, and she’d pass them to my sister. When I’d get them back, I’d donate some to the library. Now I add them to my little library. No book ever goes unwanted!
March 14, 2024 at 2:28 pm
Hi Kat,
You post was a fun one as it reminded me of so many books I’ve read over the years. At first borrowing my older siblings books, then when older from the local library. When in fourth grade my family moved to a new home where I discovered a whole bookcase in the attic filled with the complete series of the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys among others. What a wonderful discovery.
When in my 40’s I discovered a delightful series about two African women detectives who go about their lives while solving crimes: #1 Ladies Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith. Have you read any of his books? He writes about every day occurrences in a funny, touching way.
March 14, 2024 at 7:48 pm
Hi Tina,
I am the oldest so I was the boo passer. I was young when I started going to the library. It was my mother who introduced me to so many series. The first was The Bobbsey Twins. I still have those books. My mother brought them down for me when I moved into my house. I envy you that discovery!! I’d have holed up in my room to read forever or after I had finished all those great books.
I have read all the Ladies Detective Agency books. I even have a cook book based on the food in the novels. There was a short-lived TV series about the agency. I think it covered the first few books.
March 15, 2024 at 11:03 pm
Hi Kat
I too am a reader. Sometimes I think it’s where I hide from life. Sometimes I think it’s where I learned most of what I need to know how to endure life.
As a kid, I spent far too much time in the public library, and in the books I found there. Now, some 70 years later, I still use libraries to obtain new novels; otherwise I’m reading old books from the accumulated collections of five families from whom I’ve inherited now hundreds of books, 1769 – 2020. I don’t have to leave home in need of something to read. Am I still hiding/ Or just still learning?
March 15, 2024 at 11:40 pm
Hi J.
I think reading books keeps us open minded and teaches us new things or about old things we knew little or nothing about. I was a frequent flyer at the library when I was young. I read so many books from there I got to move into the adult library early. I’d read all day and, when I was older, all night. I traveled with books. I have one upstairs and another downstairs. I would never think it is hiding.