Book Fiend

Yup, that's me! I learned how to read quite young as being a writer my mother kept the house chockablock with books. We also had a subscription to National Geographic and Reader's Digest.  I don't know if you remember these but Reader's Digest also used to send out hard-covered books containing condensed versions of fiction and non-fiction books. My brother can remember me at a very young age devouring these books.

As a result I became interested in many wide-ranging genres and would withdrew 4 books from our neighbourhood library 2 or 3 times a week. Our librarian was a wonder. When she would see me veering towards "young adult" or adult books, books by Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, gothic fiction, crime books etc, she would redirect me to shelves filled with more age-appropriate books! I read the "The Little House on the Prairie" books at least 10 times! The day when she stopped re-directing was a wonderful day indeed!

Anyhoo...the problem lies in storage of so many books. I sold/donated about 2/3's of my books when I was planning to move to PEI so that gave me some breathing room for awhile but they have gradually been filling up my shelves once again. I have a sister (in PEI) who saves books for me and sent some home with Kazi when she was visiting there last week. Two friends also give me their books when they are done with them. I always ask if they want them back after but they say no....

The other problem is my proximity to the Goodwill Bookstore. Whenever I go there I never leave without at least a dozen books!! I have come to the conclusion that I have too many topics that I am interested in. Just take a wee peek at my latest purchases and gifts and you'll see what I mean...

I am big on "life is a journey" type of books like "Passage to Juneau".

Anything to do with ancient maps...The Aran Islands where Annie and I went last year...a poetry book by Emily Dickinson entitled enticingly "I'm nobody! Who are you?" As an invisible 61 year old single woman I was drawn to her book!

"The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" is a fantastic "life is a journey travel book" which I will reread a number of times, I'm sure. I read "The Woodlanders" by Thomas Hardy while I was in B.C. (I am allowed to read Hardy's books now! :)

I'm always excited when I can find a P.D. James book I haven't read!! "The Great Hunger" is about the potato famine in Ireland in the mid 19th century. Annie and I walked the Famine Trail last year. "The Highland Clearances" is another devastating  story about people being separated from their land. "Go Tell it On the Mountain", a moving story of black families surviving in Harlem.

...books from my friend Julie

....books from my sister

 

Don't stop giving!!
I just have to find more room for them all! Because this is what my house looks like right now...
Hmmmmm, get rid of the clock and I have another shelf...

Non-fiction reference books - they belong in my bedroom/study....

 ...books holding up a lamp...

 ...this stool is going to give out soon!

Inside my secretary desk - it has a door that hides the mess inside including.....BOOKS!!

I see potential here...

.....I see a theme happening...

 A bit of room...

 Bleh... a dog's breakfast!!

 Another dog's breakfast...

It seems like I recently tidied up my study but you'd never know it! So I am going to sort this all out today so that I can join Lily outside...

Sorry - I need to learn to write shorter posts!! Who are the book lovers out there?

Marching into April (yuck yuck!)

It's funny how when you look at the chart as a whole you notice the errors. Like I had a category that was called "Shoppers Drug Mart Sympathy Card" as if I'm buying those in bulk or something! So shifted that to my favourite of all categories - "Misc"!

But then I noticed another troubling trend - I can't seem to make up my mind if coffee (Starbucks, Timmy's, Red Roaster - yup, I like my coffee) is "Misc" or "Entertainment"!  Sometimes I put it under entertainment and sometimes I put it under Misc. Perhaps it's because sometimes I am just picking it up and leaving to go somewhere else, like work, and other times I'm actually staying, sitting at a table and chatting with Michael or a friend which could be classified as "Entertainment". That sounds sort of reasonable doesn't it?  

However, the truth of the matter is that I'm just inconsistent and forget from one day to the next where I should put it. 

Actually, I'm also afraid that if I put them all under "Misc" then there's next to nothing listed under "Entertainment" which makes it look as if I don't have a life and that's simply not true!

Why....just this evening Michael and I are planning an amazing night of entertainment!!! Yes indeedy!  As soon as I finish this post I am going to borrow a few movies - yes, I'm at the library so I can borrow them for FREE and then we are going to go home for a lovely home-cooked meal and we will have POPCORN while we watch the movie reclining in our most comfortable bed which means I'll fall asleep about half-way through it, gently snoring while Michael watches the ending of the movie very carefully so he can tell me tomorrow what I missed!!

it doesn't get any more entertaining than that!!

A Night at the Library

Suzzallo Library in Seattle, Washington

I love libraries; I always have. I think I was born with my library card clutched tight in my teeny weeny fist. My village librarian was Miss Lossing - known in the distant days of my childhood as a "spinster" complete with glasses and her hair drawn back tightly in a bun. She knew me very well, too well in my opinion. I was happy that she knew the number of my libary card off by heart because if I forgot it at home it was never a problem as in those pre-computer days she wrote the number in a very tidy script on the pasted-in form in the back of every book I borrowed.  She must have written the number "222" a hundred thousand times or more as I borrowed books there (four books a week) until I moved away in my early 20's.

Aside: after Miss Lossing retired MY MOTHER became the librarian! She would often give me books from the FREE discard box that she knew I loved as a child. I currently own battered and torn yet beloved books from my childhood with the hand written number 222 still visible on the inside of the back cover.

A precocious child I often veered towards the "junior adult" section which she  kept annoyingly close to her desk. Oftentimes as I "innocently" wandered over into that forbidden area she would take me by the shoulders and gently steer me back into the children's section.  I'm not sure how old I was when she finally let me borrow more mature books from the junior adult section - probably nineteen:)!

One of my most vivid memories of my early library-going days was the trip from library to home. The library was open after supper from 7 to 9pm. To get to the library I would take a shortcut across the school ground  - a total length of about a block and a half. Heading over at 6:55pm there were always lots of people out and about and cars on the streets. Emerging close to 2 hours later it would be very dark and ominously quiet...too quiet. I was faced with the decision of sticking to the sidewalk and going the long way home - west one block, north one block or taking the shortcut across the school ground which was complicated by the fact that our century old red brick two storey elementary school had an actual belfrey inhabited by actual huge, black, blood-sucking vampire BATS!!! at least that is how my child's mind remembers them - I may or may not have imagined all of the atmospheric conditions: full moon every night with glowering clouds racing across its face, wind howling through the leafless trees and the occasional glasses-wearing, be-bunned witch racing around on her broomstick....

Gulping noisily I bravely started out across the school ground my two stick arms clutching my four books to my non-existent chest. I never knew whether to keep my eyes on my destination - HOME - or to check about me for imminent dangers - serial killers, mummies, skeletons or worst of all - BATS!! Inevitably I would glance up the hill to my left - my eyes drawn up to the school's belfrey.  Not being able to see very well in the dark any leaf or speck blowing around would catch my eye - was that a bat?  How do I know?? It could be a bat!! What if it is a bat?? Oh jeez, I better make a run for it and away I raced, books thumping against my chest, eye on our porch light growing larger and shining more brightly the closer I got to HOME, my wonderful, warm and safe HOME!! where there are people who love me and will protect me....pant, pant, panting I reached our porch steps....bang bang bang up the steps, in the front door....slam!!...whew...safe again.

Mom: "how was the library?"

Me: "ok"

Written in the relative safety of Landon Library, London, ON. Although pitch dark outside I have my trusty defender with me...between the two of us we should be able to get to the car before an escaped fugitive stabs us in the back!! Stay tuned...