Books

I love books. No big secret there. I've been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. I would always pick the big books--the ones with 4-500 pages so I could dive in and stay a while. I've never been one to read a single book at a time. Even now, there are 8 or 9 on my "currently reading" shelf. I love real books--I love the smell and the feel. But I'm not one to pass up an audio version either. I have the Kindle, the iPod, the personal library, the library fines--all the signs of a book lover. I do not appologize for this. One of my most memorable birthdays was when I was nine or ten and my dad took me to B. Dalton and gave me free reign. Pick 10, he'd said. Ten! Ten new books! There were a few series I'd picked out--Sweet Valley Twins, The Babysitters Club, stuff like that. But the one I felt most excited about was the Tell Tale Heart and Other Writings by Edgar Allen Poe. I still have that book. It's a bit worse for wear, and missing the cover but still one I love. B. Dalton is gone now. The building is still there but it's a resturant or something like that now. With Halloween approaching, Poe seems to me to be the perfect writer to read (or re-read, as it were). I opened it up today for the first time in many years when Ivy mentioned that she was reading "The Raven" at school. What a great poem... I've always loved book stores. When Barnes and Noble opened it's first store in St. Louis (at least, I think it was...) my grandmother took me. I was 16 and spending the summer as my baby brother's nanny. Where I went, he went. So, I strapped him into the front carrier and the three of us drive to Ladue to explore this amazing thing that was the B&N Mega store. I spent hours browsing. It was the biggest display of new books I'd ever seen. I don't remember how many books I bought that day. It was more than one. I don't even remember which books I bought--except for one. Sacajawea by Anna Lee Waldo. I've never read that one--it's been more than 20 years but it still sits on my shelf. Today I decided, was the day. The day I open it and read page one. So here I am, with two books I've carred with me since childhood (or at least, adolescence), reading one for the millionth time and one for the very first. Poe will not disappoint. And Waldo, well, even if she does, I think I'll keep this one. It has memories of a different kind.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Easter

It’s Holy Week.  I remember being confused by so many pieces of Easter when I was young.  Why was it called Good Friday if Jesus died?  Wasn’t that BAD Friday?  Why did we eat so much fish?  Ick.  Why did it always seem to be a gloomy, rainy, week?  Did God do that on purpose?  How could Jesus ride into the city of Jerusalem with such fanfare on Sunday and be beaten so brutally just 6 days later?  As I’ve grown in my faith and age, I understand so much more.  When Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ played in theaters, I went to see it.  My sobs could hardly be heard over the sobs of others.  This wasn’t a movie where you munched on popcorn and sipped a soft drink.  This was a chore—a duty as a Christian to come face to face with the brutality endured by our Savior.  To come to terms with what He experienced so that I could, what?  Show up late to work with no excuse?  Watch movies with foul language?  Tell the occasional lie and not suffer the consequences?  Was it worth it?  What jus
Read more

Shoes=Outside

Image
When Nick comes inside from anywhere, he takes off his socks and shoes. He just likes to be barefoot inside. He also doesn't like shoes on the couch or beds, so when Ivy's inside, most of the time, her shoes and socks come off too. Naturally, this necessitates putting shoes on when we've been home and then decide to go somewhere. Ivy seems to understand this. She LOVES to be outside. She's tall enough to reach the door knob, so it's locked all the time now. She'll go up to the door, try to turn the handle and say "side" when she wants to go outside (which is all the time). When she sees one of us putting our shoes on, she naturally goes to the door and says "side". Yesterday, Nick took Ivy out to the pool for a while before I got home from work. They put their feet in the pool and splashed a bit, but no real swimming (water is still cold). When I got home, they were back inside, shoes off. Ivy wasn't quite done being outside for the day.
Read more

The Wonderful World of Meat Substitutes

I didn’t become a vegetarian until a little over two years ago. I used to think it would be absolutely impossible for me to do—I’m in love with chicken! Can’t give that up. No way. Well, clearly, I did give it up (although so many non-vegetarians say things to me like “you eat chicken, right? Chicken’s a vegetable.” Um, no.). I often encounter someone that is unaware of my food lifestyle and after the initial shock wears off, they want to know if I miss meat. The answer is a resounding no. I hardly notice it at all. I won’t go into why I don’t eat meat (not now anyway). There are different types of vegetarians. I am what is known as a lacto-ovo vegetarian—I eat eggs and diary but nothing that used to crawl, swim, walk or fly. No chicken, no cow, no pig, no lamb, no fish. (Nick and I went to a restaurant today that basically wanted to know how you want your beef cooked, but did include two of what they called “Meatless sandwiches”. They included fried fish and baked fish.
Read more