Thankfulness
Today I am very thankful for my eyes which can read, thankful for the variety of books I enjoy and thankful for the hours of joy and delight that I have gathered from them.
When I was a child there was a book, "The Boss of the Barnyard" at our house with the story, "The Reasonable Rabbit", where it told of a rabbit whose wisdom saved the lives of his fellow rabbits by exercising sweet revenge on the bobcat villain. When I ordered a copy for myself from an antique book dealer I found that the illustrations that I loved so well were some of the very first book illustrations done by Richard Scarry.
As a teenager one of my all-time favorite books in our family library was "I Married Adventure", the story of a young Osa who married Martin Johnson and lived a life of high adventure trapsing around the world helping her husband with his photography/adventure tour business at the beginning of the 20th century.
After I had been married for a few years I received a package in the mail from my mother and there inside all the brown paper wrapping was her copy of this great book. On the flyleaf mother wrote simply, "Enjoy!".
Today my cupboards are full to overflowing and I know the time has come to make some hard choices; clean out books that I will not read again or maybe ever. Not everything on my shelves has made it to my bedside table and maybe they won't. Some time ago when Shelby turned 40 I told him to come home and take 40 books off my shelves...it was great fun watching him go from shelf to shelf taking books that would interest him. Now I need to have all seven of them come home and take a stack of books.
Books are my friends, as my sister Sheila May would say. How do you cull and discard? So it is important that if I am to give up any of my books they should go to good homes. Spring cleaning, here I come!
Tell me, who is your favourite author, favourite book, favourite genre?
"When you give someone a book, you don't give him just paper, ink, and
glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life."
Christopher Morley
"God deliver me from a man of one book." English Proverb
"Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them." Charles Caleb Colton
"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"In the absences of a decent time machine, fiction remains the most
sturdy vehicle for visiting other eras." Tom Nolan
"Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter." Paxton Hood
When I was a child there was a book, "The Boss of the Barnyard" at our house with the story, "The Reasonable Rabbit", where it told of a rabbit whose wisdom saved the lives of his fellow rabbits by exercising sweet revenge on the bobcat villain. When I ordered a copy for myself from an antique book dealer I found that the illustrations that I loved so well were some of the very first book illustrations done by Richard Scarry.
As a teenager one of my all-time favorite books in our family library was "I Married Adventure", the story of a young Osa who married Martin Johnson and lived a life of high adventure trapsing around the world helping her husband with his photography/adventure tour business at the beginning of the 20th century.
After I had been married for a few years I received a package in the mail from my mother and there inside all the brown paper wrapping was her copy of this great book. On the flyleaf mother wrote simply, "Enjoy!".
Today my cupboards are full to overflowing and I know the time has come to make some hard choices; clean out books that I will not read again or maybe ever. Not everything on my shelves has made it to my bedside table and maybe they won't. Some time ago when Shelby turned 40 I told him to come home and take 40 books off my shelves...it was great fun watching him go from shelf to shelf taking books that would interest him. Now I need to have all seven of them come home and take a stack of books.
Books are my friends, as my sister Sheila May would say. How do you cull and discard? So it is important that if I am to give up any of my books they should go to good homes. Spring cleaning, here I come!
Tell me, who is your favourite author, favourite book, favourite genre?
"When you give someone a book, you don't give him just paper, ink, and
glue. You give him the possibility of a whole new life."
Christopher Morley
"God deliver me from a man of one book." English Proverb
"Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them." Charles Caleb Colton
"The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"In the absences of a decent time machine, fiction remains the most
sturdy vehicle for visiting other eras." Tom Nolan
"Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter." Paxton Hood
I like the quotes at the end of your post. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI am also trying to go through my books and keep only what is near and dear to me--I opened up a book of Rosamunde Pilcher books that I have collected over the years--this was in December and now I am rereading them all--and have got no further on my sorting!!!Caroline said to save some books for their house on Reid Island--so there is a good cause to donate to. Books are our friends--that is for sure.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brent for your kind words...happy to have you stop by.
ReplyDeleteAlways love your comments and encouragement Jeanne. Happy reading.
ReplyDelete