I am an avid reader. However, the older I get it seems the less time I have to do it. But oh, there is nothing more satisfying than a good read.
My dream home would consist of a library like you see in the movies - mahogany or cherry wood, large, leather chairs, a large picture window and the walls covered in canvas art and books from floor to ceiling. Ahhhhh, it makes me smile just thinking about it.
I can thank my father for my obsession. He was an avid reader himself, able to read at an alarming speed. He could look down the middle of the page and read all the words. I can remember when my brother had read Pet Semetary by Stephen King and was telling my dad what a good book it was. The next morning my dad said - "It was a good book." He had read it in a few hours time.
My dad didn't get out much. So my mom would go to the library for him. The librarian knew us by name. If there was a book our small town library didn't have (which was often), they would have it there within a week for him. My mom had this large sports sack, the mesh kind that football players use for equipment. She would take it and skim the library shelves and fill it with 10 -12 books or until the bag seemed to bulge at the seems. They typically included autobiographies and anything new by Larry McMurtry. Once we got back home, my dad would go through and make two piles - one of the ones he was interested in and the other of the ones he was not. My mom made the trip once a week, often times more. In that week's time, my dad would have finished the books and ready for new - the library couldn't keep up with his insatiable thirst for the written word.
I have developed the same love and appreciation for books. I love the smell of them. I love the crackling sound the spine makes when I open it. I love the feel of turning a page and I never....ever dog-ear my pages! I own a Nook and my husband always offers to buy digital copies of the latest book I want and there have been times I have let him, only to realize it is not the same. I don't like it. I want to turn a page; I want to slide the bookmark in to save my place; I want to hold the book with both hands.
While I understand that technology is surpassing our knowledge it seems, I know that books may become obsolete and libraries may just be a story I tell my grandkids. I hope not, but I am a realist and know this very well could be our future.
However, I will continue to collect them and pull then from the shelf, dust the sleeve off, curl in a chair with a cup of tea and enjoy a life I will never live.
And as long as I have anything to say about it, my future generations will grow to love books as much as I. Thankfully, my daughter has developed the same adoration for the bound pages. Therefore, the generation of loving them will continue.
With that being said, I have a new book waiting to be read......
