As a child I loved to visit the library. It was only about two blocks from our home so my mother often let us go there independently. The one in my home town resided in an old, unrenovated, white house near the main street. (Yup, small town) I think I temporarily fell out of love with books when school made reading a synonym with "work". In high school I loved writing essays and pouring over a novel looking for the perfect quote to back up my thesis. At that point I was in denial though and would have still told you I hated English class. Finally in University the fates got to me and I switched my major to English. Ever since I swoon over books, especially old hard cover copies. I avoid going to book stores unless I can afford to buy at least one great book, otherwise I will spend hours there looking through the shelves only to leave broken hearted; all those lovely books just waiting for someone to take them home, and I would love them so!
Inadvertently, I married a man who shares my longtime love for reading. My husband grew up in a home that did not really watch television. Really, did not watch it at all. I'm not even sure they owned a television. His parents learned English as a second language so he was encouraged to read books to pick up the language better. His choice of childhood literature is interesting, but very tell tale if you knew him. Encyclopedias. Yes, not because he had to, but because he enjoyed all the information. Information he uses to torment people by throwing unknown facts into conversations, or fables that sound like truths, thus prompting people to think of him as a "story teller" (also affectionately known as a liar). I like to think that he is so smart that he simply gets bored of standard conversation and likes to spice it up; sometimes with interesting facts and sometimes with outlandish lies based on facts. Regardless, he loves to read when ever he gets the chance.
When we got married we discovered that we had a very interesting combination of books. I, being the English Major, own a lot of Dickens, Hardy, Austen, Shakespeare, anthologies, poetry, and children's books due to ones purchased for school and for RD when she was younger. My husband is a nerd. I love his nerdiness and believe that I am (I hate to say this) a closet nerd as well. I say this because I not only know but understand the majority of his nerdy references. Even the very vague ones. My husband, therefore, owns many Star Trek novels, Douglas Adams, Michael Crichton, as well as copies of the classics he had to or chose to read, like Fitzgerald and Twain. Not to mention that he grew up close to the Shakespeare capital of Canada, Stratford, and thus we have many duplicate copies of Shakespeare plays, biographies and anthologies. In addition, we have both collected an assortment of Non-Fiction books, such as Home Repair, World History, Animal Kingdom Encyclopedia, self help, true stories, National Geographic and etiquette. If that was not enough, my husband is also very musically inclined as an organist / pianist. We have shelves of hymnals, bibles, sheet music in binders, collected works or sets of music by many composers, and my daughters guitar books.
Shortly after we got married we purchased two LARGE book cases (surprise) to match one we were given, and now have the beginnings of our own personal library. It actually doesn't look like much, but when you realize that there are additional book shelves in the nursery and my daughter keeps stacks of books in her room it starts to add up. I use to read to my daughter every night, until she became too cool for me. I started reading to my son before he was born. I will read him anything, given that he doesn't really understand any of it yet. I do still try to throw in the children's classics though; Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Winnie the Pooh, The Princess Bride. He already, at 7 months, seems to love books. Yes, he will try to eat them if he gets his hands on them, but stares at the book shelves in awe and with a smile. The first time I took him to the library I thought he was going to have a fit. He is not crawling yet, but once he can I know I'll be chasing him around the stacks in the children's section. I think the word "Book" will be one of his first, which kind of makes me proud.
My husband keeps offering to buy me a Kindle (we play this game where we offer to buy what we consider extravagant things for one another, knowing that we would both rather put the money to savings). While I might enjoy books on tablet for the convenience of being able to cart around hundreds of books, I don't think I would enjoy it as much. I love new books. I love old books even more. Hard cover is a fav. Cracking the spine, smelling the paper, wondering where the book has travelled and how many other people have shared this same story just adds to the wonderment of the story. I am a terrible person for dog earing my books, which I know makes some people cringe. I only do it to books I own though. I like to look at them as if they are my own Velveteen Rabbits to pass on and share with my children. I guess that is why I know I will always be
FBM
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