Yesterday was National Booklovers Day. Actually, everyday is booklover’s day, but it’s nice that we have a national day of our own. So that has gotten me thinking about how I became a booklover.
Blame my mom. I grew up in a house full of books. She was in several mail order book clubs. And she gave me free rein to explore the bookshelves. Then there was the bookcase of encyclopedias just outside my bedroom in the hallway. I spent hours leafing through articles.
Blame Mrs. Smith, my first grade teacher who taught me to read and Mrs. Fusek, the third grade teacher who figured out I needed glasses. I wouldn’t be a reader without either of them.
And blame the West Side library. While mom didn’t have much in the way of sports books, military history, or science and science fiction, the library did. Each week, I’d come home with an armful of books.
Finally, blame the book rack at the local pharmacy, filled with cheap paperbacks where I bought books by Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and Ian Fleming, which dad confiscated, but not before I read the sexy parts!
Many other influences have nourished my love of books over the years, but those were the beginnings!
Five Articles Worth Reading
Some of us remember a time before Google or Siri. Back then, if you wanted to know some obscure fact, you could ask a reference librarian, and often, in a very short time, they’d give you the answer. Actually I checked and you can still phone or do an online chat with a reference librarian at my library. Stephen Akey recalls his experiences answering the phones at the Brooklyn Public Library in pre-internet days in “The Department of Everything”
Smithsonian reprised an article from 2004, “Walden’s Ripple Effect,” on the enduring power of the extended essay of Henry David Thoreau, who spent a bit over two years in a cabin by a small, 61 acre pond in Massachusetts.
If you are someone who makes travel bucket lists, or just likes to drool over incredible bookstores, you will go gaga over “The Ultimate Guide to Wondrous Independent Bookstores.” There are pictures and descriptions of 53 bookstores in this Atlas Obscura article!
“What is Immersion Reading?” I have to confess I didn’t know until reading the article. But I won’t spoil the fun for you. And I might try this some time.
What were formative “coming of age” books for you? I was a high school sophomore in April of 1970 when the first Earth Day was held. Garrett de Bell edited a collection called The Environmental Handbook. Reading that book shaped in me a commitment to environmental care that has never died. The Guardian published ” ‘A rumpled paperback showed me I was not alone’: Charlotte Mendelson, Michael Rosen and others on the books that marked their coming of age” where a number of writers discussed their formative “coming of age” books. I’d love to hear of yours in the comments.
Quote of the Week
One might think this quote comes from Wendell Berry, who turned 90 this past Monday. Rather, it comes from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who wrote The Yearling:
“No man should have proprietary rights over land who does not use that land wisely and lovingly.“
Miscellaneous Musings
I began my eighth decade this week. Perhaps it’s appropriate to read Faith Embodied by Stephen Ko, a physician and pastor who connects bodily and spiritual health. I was inclined to ignore that in my younger years. No longer!
A perennial discussion among booklovers is having far more books than they can read. Is it hoarding or just being prepared for the apocalypse?! One of my own tests is how freely do I give away or lend books (often the same thing!). Personally, it gives me joy to see books have a life beyond my own shelves.
I just finished The Confession of Brother Haluin, the fifteenth in Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series. What gems these are! I’m so glad I finally discovered books many of you read years ago. But isn’t this part of the fun behind “so many books; so little time”? We can still read books we couldn’t or didn’t read when younger. I like to think that I may not have been ready to enjoy them back then!
Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for this week!
Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.