Books

I love to read.  I have always loved to read.  Each time I check a book out of the library (I cannot tell you the last time I actually bought a book) I think of Amie.  I think of our Sunday phone calls where a staple topic of conversation started with "tell me about what you are reading."  Books.  For me they represent reality, dreams, wonder, answers, questions, travel, confusion, perspective, relativity, humility, discomfort, security, time, place, relationships, humanity, and love.  I appreciate being educated by the nonfiction and taken out of my normal realm by the fiction.  I have had books that really matter to me, books that grace our bookshelves because I absolutely had to own them.  To have them on hand always. I have also had books that I didn't finish.  Books that I hated.  Books that I was thankful to toss gently back into the library return bin.  For better or for worse books are a HUGE part of my life.    The library is a sanctuary for me.  So many titles, so many ideas, so many stories.  It is a small scale representation of life.  Every single person on this planet has a story, 100 stories, a million stories.  But just a small fraction put those stories on paper, I am thankful for that small fraction.  The library is familiar to me, both literally and figuratively.  I know each of the librarians' names.  I know what books they love.  They know me and my son and they know we are Thursday library goers and prompt library hold picker uppers.  They know that Luke is a nonfiction kid but that I try to hide some fairytales and fables in his library bag.  They know what level reader he is and they know I will devour any new travel books they might have.  The library smells similar to every library I have ever been in.  The smell of books.  Intoxicating.  May they never be fully replaced by a screen.  I would choose the physical pages - even those sometimes sticky from spilled tea or peanut butter - over a finger swipe any day.  The book has a story written on the pages but it also has a story of a journey.  Who has read it before?  What did they think?  Did it change their life?  Sometimes where a book has been is just as thrilling to think about as the story within.  I have been a book club leader or member for many, many years.  I love the idea of a book club.  I have read countless books that I would not have otherwise even noticed because of my book club friends.  I am grateful to be taken out of my comfort zone, to visit other aisles of the library, asked to put myself in a whole new pair of shoes.  I embrace the challenge, the change, and I am grateful.  There is always a gem that I would otherwise never have uncovered.  And there is something about the type of person that joins a book club.  Of course a love of books, the written word, stories...that is a common thread but there is more.  From my experiences, my book club friends are open minded, open hearted, and genuine.  They can separate who they are from characters, they can empathize with many but yet not become anyone but who they really are.  It is as if we have read so many tales (true and made up) that we are profoundly aware of all types of people, of personalities, and that makes us truly aware and connected to who we are.  I love these women who are more than just my book club friends.  I respect them.  We all have differing opinions and likes and dislikes but we all know who we are and we rejoice in that.  Books....creating confidence and a sense of self.  Amazing.

In my mid thirties now...these are a few of the books that hold a forever place on my bookshelf and in my heart.  I wonder if time will change things?  Years from now, if I do another post such as this, will the books be the same?  Time and an evolution of self will tell. :-)

Walden: and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
The One and Only Ivan - Katherine Applegate
Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - Emerson
Collected Poems - Wendell Berry
Last Child in the Woods - Richard Louv
Thoreau's Journals - edited by Odell Shepard
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
The Captains' Verses - Pablo Neruda
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Joy for Beginners - Erica Bauermeister
The Immense Journey - Loren Eiseley
Moloka'i - Alan Brennert
The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay

These books matter to me.