I love books. They're all over my house, piles of them. I try to keep one at every landing spot I have: The kitchen, along with the cookbooks; By the recliner; Another pile at my big chair in the living room; By the bed; One or a dozen in each bathroom. If I'm sitting still, there's a good book nearby. Ken bought me my third Kindle for Christmas and gave it to me early (this one lights up so you can read it at the beach!). He thought I might need it while recovering from surgery.
Way back when I started school, only rich people's kids went to kindergarten. I remember my first day of first grade at Powder Springs Elementary. We had reading circle and there was a boy who could already read. I didn't think he seemed all that much smarter than me, so I made it my quest to figure this thing out. In short order, I was done with those Dick and Jane books and picking up reads from the library. A whole world of adventures opened up as the delicious stacks loomed before me. I was always getting in trouble for sneaking my real books inside our "readers." When third grade came around, our teacher took us through a speed-reading curriculum. I couldn't believe my luck.
I am thankful for all the libraries that exist -- school, public, church, and even the little library two doors down from us now. It's easy to pick up a $1.00 masterpiece at the Goodwill store, and now that Amazon is king, I'm ashamed of the amount of money I spend clicking on that little banner. Sometimes it's hard to find a book without gratuitous sex (really, don't these folks have their own sex lives?!) -- I've asked many a librarian to point me to a clean book, only to find it's just another trashy novel when you get to page 10. I really don't understand that. Just as in great comedy, the best and smartest work is what takes brains and plot, not resorting to the lowest common denominator.
Meanwhile, there are so many good books left to read, not enough time. I'm plumbing the depths right now, learning new things about training puppies. My Christmas present, Jack the Australian Shepherd Puppy, is coming next week and I'm doing a refresher, even though I've had more puppies in my life than is fair to the rest of the world. What is wonderful about literature is that you can immerse yourself into any subject, learn it from different angles, and see the whole world from another's eyes. I have several books in me, but I don't know if I can hunker down long enough to write one out myself. Books are our stories, our lives. How lucky we are to have them. There are too many great ones out there to stop and read one twice, except the Bible. And that is a mystery to me. I have no interest in reading a novel two times, but when I open that Good Book, it is a treasure trove (I like the ESV and the NKJV translations). It's like looking at a multi-faceted gem, where when you look from a different angle it takes on a whole other meaning. Different decades, different circumstances and you'll find little notes in my margins, telling of what God did. The facet of the Word turns and a new light is shed on today's disaster or triumph. It's a living book, sprung from the heart and mind of our Creator and different than any other. History, adventure, wisdom, and lots of mayhem, along with the way back to center. What could be better?
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