Books, Books, Books

One day my granddaughter, who was looking at my well-filled bookshelves, said, "Grandma, I'll bet you have a thousand books." I replied that I had a lot of books, but not that many--several hundred perhaps, but not a thousand.

Being a girl with an inquiring and determined nature, she began to go through the house counting books. After she counted all the books on shelves, tables, and the nightstand, she counted the books on my Kindle. To my amazement, she was right. I had more than a thousand books!

Over the years I have not only collected books, I have given away several hundred. Every time I move I cull my shelves to lighten the load. It just does not stay lightened for very long, even though I do periodic culling to free up shelf space (always a painful process!). My son-in-law has come up with some colorful solutions over the years to moving all my books!

Because of my love for books, I find it difficult to understand how people live without books. No matter how nicely decorated, how tidy and organized, someone's home may be, if it has no books in evidence it seems stark and barren to me.

Some of my books are old friends that I have treasured for a half century, read and re-read. Some are brand new. Some are fiction, some are non-fiction. Some are classic, some definitely are not. Some are educational, some are frivolous. I am not a high-brow reader. I want writing that is clear, interesting, with a story that captures my attention and carries me to places I'll never go in reality. If a book is highly touted by the critics as innovative, that is a pretty good clue that it is not for me. Just tell me a good story!

I use my Kindle a lot, but it cannot replace the thrill of a real book, with real pages, a book I can hold in my hands, that I can flip back and re-read a passage or look up something I seem to have missed, a book that appeals to all my senses.

Electronic publishing has many benefits, and I use it. But I hope it never completely replaces books!