Books. And More Books

I have always been a reader. First as a listener on my parents’ and grandparents’ laps, then as an increasingly competent independent. Mom noted in my “baby book” that I came home from my first day of first grade and announced “Well, I haven’t learned to read yet!” I vividly recall the (limited!) adventures of Dick , Jane, Sally, Spot, and Puff and the ever-widening world to which they introduced me.

Those of us who are readers can chart our interests and  maturing passions by recalling what captured us and when:

Winnie the Pooh (friendship, curiosity, poetry)

The Box Car Children,  The Little Princess, The Secret Garden (books that still appeal to children over sixty years after I read them)      

I crossed the country with Laura Ingalls Wilder and Caddie Woodlawn. We named our first daughter after the wildly adventurous Hilary in Hilary’s Island (sadly, no longer in print, and I am reluctant to shell out $147 to purchase the one copy I can find on line).

Seventh grade summer reading required that I devour  The Prince and the Pauper, Around the World in Eighty Days, and Swiss Family Robinson. That same summer, my life perspective was changed forever by a family visit to The Secret Annex, and my hours with The Diary of Anne Frank.

The first book (possibly the only one) I remember hiding behind a text in class was Atlas Shrugged. To be fair, the class, was a boring one… My high school senior year schedule provided a study hall for the last two periods. My wont was to check out a book from the library and read straight through until Sunday evening, when it was time to do homework.

During our honeymoon, when rainstorms in NYC prompted a quiet afternoon, Wayne gave me The Hobbit, and I trailed him happily through that series until I was devastated by Frodo’s death at the end of Return of the King. Wayne was at sea for twenty-eight days at a time the first year of our marriage; I lived by myself in Japan and Guam. Books were the company on which I could count.

Since I retired four years ago, I aspire to read 100 books annually.  As of today, I’m on number eighty-four… I listen to some, pick up others from the library, and download others on my Kindle. Toting a pile of hardbacks from the library will always be the most satisfactory, but I’ll take books any way I can get them.

This is the time of the year when various sources publish the Best Books of the Year and the Best Books of All Time. Not to mention the lists of Banned Books. I am grateful to have read many on the first two lists and almost all on the third.

PS. For some reason, this Blog format elected to erase the underlining of all titles. I know better.