Books are in my soul

Books are in my soul.  I should be better at writing, what with all of the reading I have done in my life.  My mother loved books, and had a rather large collection before I came along.  I always had access to books, any book in the house.  From a very tender age my mother instilled a healthy respect of books, and how to handle them, in me.  I particularly remember that she enrolled me in a book club, I think when I was 3 years old, thus I got a book in the mail with some regularity.  There was also a kind of a language book, geared for preschool minds, and it was all about words, sounds, and phonics.  Mother was a huge proponent of phonics in teaching a child to read, and I poured over this book regularly as a tot. (I still have the book, ….somewhere….)

My mother read to me, every day of my life until I was about 13 years old. When I was very confident in my reading abilities we sat side by side, and if Mom made any error in reading I would point it out and we would laugh together,....good times.  

I remember one time, I must have been nearly 4 years old, mom wanted to nap, but I wanted her to read to me.... Mom sighed and said that she would read me "a couple" of books.  Holding the books I wanted to hear in my hands I announced, "a couple is five!"  Of course Green Eggs & Ham was one of the five books she read to me that afternoon.

As a small child I was read to during the day and at bedtime.  Everything from current children’s favorites to fairy tales.  My parents bought a edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica for me and with that came a supplementary series of “Childbook” installments, which included a book of stories for children.  Childbook #2.  This one of my favorite sources for bedtime stories, a huge anthology of a variety of stories, some fairy tales, some tales from “foreign lands”, all highly entertaining for young minds. 

And, very precious to me, on the bookshelf in my living room (where I can see it every day): The Childrens Treasury of Literature (Grosset & Dunlap ©1955). This contains fables, nursery rhymes, and a load of stories that fascinate youngsters, like the Tales of Aladdin.  I have always kept this massive tome within reach, every day of my life.  Sadly, it is out of print, and I sorely wish that I had purchased a second copy when they were still reprinting it.

  

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss became the bane of my mother’s existence.  It was ALWAYS included in any selection of 3 to 5 books that she would agree to read to me during the day.  I would tease her with it all her life, and even when Alzheimer’s took her short-term memory I could get a sigh of dismay from her upon showing her the book.  “Not that again!” she would say.  But I believe that Green Eggs and Ham was the base upon which my foundation of lifetime reading was built.  Only 2 books jump immediately to my mind when I am asked about the first book I loved.  Green Eggs and Ham, and The Little House.  Two books that were read to me more than any others, and I accumulated a very large library as a child, which I still own to this day.

In grade school I argued with the school librarian to allow me to check out books that were considered to be beyond an 8 year old, books she felt were for the fourth through sixth grades.   In particular Smoky, The Cowhorse, which was the book that began the argument in the first place.  I told her that I would read the entire book and bring it back within the allowed two week check-out period, the librarian relented, and I accomplished the read with days to spare.  That ended arguments with that librarian, after I told her all about the story of Smoky, The Cowhorse.

Other favorites of my youth and adolescence include White Fang, by Jack London, ….. 2250AD “original title Starman’s Son”, by Andre Norton ….. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson –the novel upon which the Charleton Heston movie The Omega Man was based.  When asked about favorite books these are the ones that come to mind first.

There are many other favorites, among them The Godfather and The Exorcist, as the original movie versions of these books in particular were extremely true to the books upon which they were based. To me The Stand is Stephen King’s best novel.

I love The Far Pavillions, by M.M.Kaye, which I purchased for the sole reason that it was over 1,200 pages in length and the bargain price was $1.99, when I was still in high school, and first read when I was 18 years old.  I adore The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough.   I am not usually one to choose an author and then read everything they have written, but I do have a couple of favorite authors….

For cheesy Cinderella-type tales I love Judith Krantz from her first novel , Scruples 1978 through her 1994 novel Lovers,  after that I lost interest…. I will have to see what I am missing from her later years.  Mistral’s Daughter by Judith Krantz is an amazing story of the frailty of the human psyche, fraught with failings, confidence, and regret, but also encompassing love so great that we break our own hearts.

Another favorite, quite more intellectual in style is author Allen Drury. The first Allen Drury book I obtained from a bookstore where I worked, someone had special ordered, never picked it up, and it was marked down from $34.00 (because of being a special order) to $1.00, a bargain!  The title: Roads of Earth  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Drury)  Allen Drury wrote several novels that were about Washington D.C. politics, a duo of ancient Egypt novels, and even a political/science fiction novel.  Allen Drury’s novels are on a rather more intellectual level than I normally read, however, I find the content interesting and compelling, in an old-school style reminiscent of columnists and newscasters of my youth.

Recently, for nearly a decade, I had a job that made reading inconvenient for me –too many interruptions.  Therefore, from mid-2007 until late 2016 I believe that read fewer than 25 books.  How sad!  However, the first thing I did upon leaving that job was to pick up a book and start reading….. now approximately 75 days later, I have read 13 books, and am into the 14^th.  These include the 7 book Harry Potter series, a book about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and currently the excellent Robert Redford biography by Michael Feeney Callan.  I am participating in a reading challenge, which is to read 26 books in 2017, I may actually read 52 books in 2017!

I have far more books than I have shelf space for.... and I have been known to read as many as 3 books at the same time; one upstairs, one downstairs, and one in the backpack. I definitely need a large room for exclusive use as a library.  And yet, I still go to the library; for the Harry Potter series, and occasionally when someone recommends a particular book to me. I loved spending hours getting lost in the library.... and that will be another blog.........