Concerning Books

Yesterday was the annual AAUW book sale in Mansfield. Oh, boy! I have been counting the days! I LOVE book sales. And we have been going to this book sale since we moved up here. Can't remember a time of not going. Finally, this year, I remembered to take the camera. Well, almost. We had to turn around three miles away to come back for it. Every other year, I don't even think about it until we are there. I have been wanting to take photos of it for years. You know, I realised that by the time our kids come around, there won't be book sales like that. They probably won't get to see a sale with that many books in it. I remember the old M/RCPL sales when they closed off the entire underground parking lot and had their sale in there. It was HUGE! That's gone now. MV/KCPL used to have theirs in a big room on the ground floor. That's gone as well. Actually, books are disappearing all together. Quite sad.

There is something that is really comfortable about books. I don't even mean reading. Feeling. Looking at them. Just having them around. Everybody who ever comes to our house just LOVES the back room upstairs. Their favorite room in the house. And they all say the same thing. "It is so cozy and inviting". You could put all the same furniture and accessories in another room and without the books, it wouldn't be the same. Even if you don't know the reason, I think the books make the difference.

Gramma and Kelly came up last month for a short visit. Gramma showed me her Kindle and let me look at it. I've been dying to see one. Interesting, but I don't see how it will ever be the same as a real "paper and ink" book. No feeling. No character. Everything looked the same and it was like reading on a laptop screen. I don't think there is anything that can ever take the place or fill the shoes of books. The enjoyment and the knowledge that one bound volume can bring. To adults or kids alike. Every book holds the key to the door of imagination which nothing else can imitate or replace. Whether it is an historical novel, a biography, or a picture book - the thrill is there. Just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

We have reached a severe crisis point with not having much more space for the books that we get to add to the collection. I have decided to really go through my records again, because I would much rather have more books than records. As much as I like records, they aren't the same as books. I just love everything about books. The look of them, the feel of them, the smell of them. I even love having to dust them. My next step is book binding and mending! This Winter . . .

Here is a photo of a section of the non-fiction tabe. At every book sale there are at least two ( or more!) copies of "Iacocca". I don't know what it will be like when these are all gone.! ;o)

We got two boxes and my biggest library duffel bag filled of books at the sale yesterday. Pretty good for us nowadays. We used to get a thousand or more books every year at this sale. The numbers have decreased over the years. (Oh, man! I don't know where I would find the room for a thousand books all at one time now! ) I got a few new Christie books and some historical fiction to try. Bunch of kids books, some Landmarks, Sarah and I got a big stack of sheet music. Really cool stuff.

We stopped at the main library after the sale so that Sarah and I could browse through the stacks to find books that we didn't know the titles of. (Internet catalogues are wonderful things, but, unfortunately they aren't any good when you don't know the title of a certain book and only recognize it by sight.) Here is a photo of Oliver resting on one of Sarah's. He found the book very tiring . . . hee hee. Actually, Sarah is really enjoying it. It is the story of "Gone With The Wind".

All in all, it was a very fun day. I was so excited last night that I had trouble going to sleep. Book sales do that to me. They are energizing, unlike anything else. Books, books, books . . . It can't get much better.

"Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." - 1 Timothy 4:13