Books, Books, Books!

Here is yet another confession...I am a bibliophile. No excuses, I simply LOVE books....all books...new and old. I read them, I collect them, I decorate with them. I am actually not sure when I came down with this condition, I do however remember the first book that solidified my love for words and the ability to escape into another world....Just Like Jennings by Anthony Buckeridge; my first exploration into a child's world of mystery and intrigue, my first hard cover novel that my grandparents bought for a birthday (or Christmas), the first book that found its way onto my shelf to be read and reread, the book that started it all still sits on my shelf with the original dust cover holding a place of honor with my many 'classics'. Funny how just writing about it makes me smile and want to read it again.

As I young child I had a difficult time reading and writing, the name now is dyslexia but all those years ago it was thought I simply did not try hard enough. I was blessed when my second grade teacher who saw the problem when I learned to write...completely backwards, right to left as though in a mirror. Miss Holtsbaum, how much I owe you for spending hours after school helping me learn to to make sense of the letters until they one day started to sing me tales of places filled with a magic that I still hold dear. I wonder if she realized the time she took would shape my life in such a grand way...how I would love to hug her today and say thank you...pretty sure if the opportunity presented itself I would cry. She was not young then so I am not sure if she is still alive but I am sure that her love of teaching helped many more children than just myself....oops, I digress...

Over the years I have fallen in love with many books. I remember sitting in my window taking wonderful adventures without ever leaving my room. I remember the day I took my allowance to the second hand store and spent a whopping $11 dollars on a two volume set, 'The Life of Adolf Hitler' by John Toland because they would look so good on my shelf (poor mom had a fit and neither of us knew that he was a Pulitzer Prize winning historian or that myself and my boys would one day use these books when completing school socials projects). I remember hours spent in the old Abbotsford library learning the dewey decimal system (yes, I was a geek). I remember laying by the pool many a summer with a good fiction book in hand. I remember giggling at  Gulliver's Travels long before I was knew it was actually a satire on human nature. I remember falling in love with Sacajawea prior to learning of her historical importance. I remember the emotions and empathy I felt the first time I read 'Grapes of Wrath' by Steinbeck.  With each memory comes another...often events in my life being defined by what I was reading at the time....Frank Baum (Dorothy's shoes were silver in the book by the way), Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, John Jakes, Jean Auel, Dr Seuss, Steven Cosgrove, Stephen Lawhead, Ted Dekker....the list is far too exhaustive for me to name the many books or authors that have impacted me over the years.

So today, a lifetime later I still love to sit with a book and let the magic take hold. I love to read.  I love to curl up with coffee and a book. I love the smell and the feel of a new book or an old book. I love modern stories and classic tales. It was my intention to write about a favorite book today but I have realized I simply do not have a favorite...how could I possibly choose??