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| I can FEEL my mom looking to see if any of these are hers! |
Said Sam I am.
Ok, maybe Sam wouldn't have said that. But I did!
A Book. A precious commodity. In any language.
Reading a book is like talking to an
old friend. Sometimes it makes you laugh. Sometimes it makes you cry. Sometimes it takes you on a journey to far away places. Sometimes it can teach you something.
Somebody once said "IF you can learn to read, you can teach yourself anything"
My mom taught me to read very, very young. Thankfully I have always enjoyed it. I know I made her mad a time or two when I would be 'involved' with my book when she was trying to 'talk' to me.~ I would just look up blank and go "were talking to me?" ...I never quite got
WHY that annoyed her until my oldest son did it to me.
It was also difficult in school right from the get go. The
other kids would be sounding out words and I would be done or very far ahead when my turn came.
For some of us reading is as natural as breathing. We read anything...Literally. Everything from Cookbooks to Charmin labels. If it's the printed word, we are just naturally drawn to it.
When we first moved back to ND, hubby charmingly suggested that I get a
LIBRARY CARD! (snicker, snort, giggle). He just didn't get the whole
owning the book thing. Still doesn't. But I humored him and went down to the little town near us to get one. I came home without one. Hubby asked me
Why?...Because I already
OWN most of what they have! (and what I don't my mama does, and it will someday be mine....big smile) Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against going to the library. I have spent many, many hours in them.
I recently tried to move into the new century (
finally). First I downloaded a book on my laptop. Don't get me wrong. It was a good book and I enjoyed it. But I had a very hard time actually
reading it....Anyone who knows me, knows that I can sit down with a book, tune out the world, and just READ.
(
*this book is "Letters of a Woman Homesteader" here is the link: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/SteHome.html)
I had a hard time with not being able to just mark, use the flap, or dog ear (Yes, Mom...I said DOG EAR) where I was. Just as hard was not being able to just take the laptop to the kitchen to read while I cooked dinner. Couldn't just leave the laptop outside on the swing, because the dog, garden, cows etc want attention while I am out there.And it might rain, get licked, walked on by a cat or any manner of outdoor things, while my attention is turned for a few moments.
NO, Mom...I do NOT take my best books outside for abuse!
I also borrowed one of those
NOOK things. That I can see the merits of. Very nice for plane rides. Fits in carry on nicely. Once again though, I found the negatives outweighed the positives for me. Still couldn't use it in the kitchen to read while kneading bread or frying chicken., ...would still be worried sick I laid it on a bench somewhere and forgot my pricey toy.
Mostly though, I think for me it's the inability to just have a couple of three, four books going at any given time. ~Without having to bounce around electronically~ And also not being able to just
loan my books. I was under the impression, that you can't just 'transfer' your book electronically to your friends device. Maybe that is not true. Don't know. Probably will never know, unless someone tells me otherwise.
I think I will stay happily ensconced in the past as far as my reading material goes. I like
looking at the covers and
reading the flaps (and maybe a chapter or two) before I buy it. I like have a bunch of well loved paperbacks to read while needing a distraction in the kitchen. I like the smoothness of the cover & the texture of the pages as I turn them. I like that at a glance I can pick a book out of my line-up on sight. I like the comfort of having a book tucked in my luggage for later. I like that when my boyz
ASK me a question I can say "GO LOOK IT UP!" ....Yes...this person STILL has a full set of encyclopedias! (They hated that.. They'd ask and we'd say "5 minutes...Go look it up and come back and tell me")
I find it amusing that now my son circles my books like a little vulture the same way I circle my moms!
Old books, New books, Funny books, History books, Not so much Sci Fi books, Trashy books, Any books...I love them all.
Pick one up and enjoy it!
Katy
I happen to be 'Old School'. I was brought up in a family of salesmen that all swore by the "Rules Of Three".~ Three seconds. Three feet. Three days. Three people.~
Three Days- The absolute longest amount of time that should lapse after you tell someone you will call, and actually doing it. You should always make it a point to do call backs within three days. It conveys that you really are interested.
