Musings On.....Reading

 

“Be awesome! Be a book nut!”
― Dr. Seuss

 

Last year I introduced my current loosely organized reading structure:  FI80. 

F=books to read for Fun

I=books to read for Information

80=my e-book store's theme of 80 Books Around the World

What a pleasure it's been!  A recent trip to Bookman's for the purpose of selling books  looked like this:

FUN

 

INFORMATION

 

80 BOOKS AROUND THE WORLD

This is my current crop of choices:

It's Fun on the top shelf, mostly 80 on the second shelf, and mostly Information on the bottom shelf.  

The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more.”
― Patricia A. McKillip

Family lore is that at age 3, I started reading by asking my Mom "what does this spell" for just about anything I laid eyes on.  I don't remember that, but I do clearly remember the first book I ever read:

 

 

No mercy for my Mom: I sat on the floor at the bathroom door asking her the words I didn't know.  

“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.”
― Orhan Pamuk

Kid's book series I remember: 

Dr Seuss

 

 The Five Little Peppers,

The Happy Hollisters:

 

 The Kearney Public Library was one of the many Carnegie Libraries built across country in the late 1800's and early 1900's. 

 

I was less than 10 years old when Mom and the Librarian decided I could have access to the Adult section of books.  

“The world was hers for the reading.”
― Betty Smith

The rest is reading history

“I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've done countless all-nighters.  I've read myself to blinding headaches.  I've read when there's other things that needed doing.  I'll choose reading over TV any day (except Dancing With The Stars).  I've read with a flashlight under the covers and a headlamp in a tent.  Some of that reading in a tent was on long backpacking trips on the AZT.  Yep, a book was along.  I have a book on tape & a spare in the car at all times.  I had a reading specialist endorsement on my teaching certificate.  I resisted an e-book initially, but have had one for several years.  I like to take it on the plane or in the car when I travel,  and pack my "real" books in my suitcase. I try to keep that at no more than three.  I belonged to a book club for awhile when I worked, but as reading time was more limited those books ended up being all I was reading.  They were good books, but not enough Fun.  

As I was working my way through the loft this month looking for things to get rid of, I came across a notebook full of clippings of books I've been interested in reading at some point in the past.  Oh my.  A whole new category of reading!  I thought to go on a buying frenzy, but even on used book sites it's more than I care to invest.  So I'm starting this new category at the Library. I think I'll call it Capricious:  

1.  subject to, led by, or indicative of a sudden, odd notion

An unresolved dilemma is the keeping of books.  Both Ron and I have collections of reference books.  However, I rarely re-read fiction, and I've shelves of novels I've read and most likely won't read again.  Why keep them?  But let all of them go?  

A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Cicero

I'll close with one of my favorite quotes:

"Outside of a dog,

 a book is a man's best friend.  Inside of a dog

 

it's too dark to read.

---- Groucho Marx

HAPPY READING!