I love books. The moment you step into my home you will know that positively – definitely – I love books. Books are everywhere in my house. On tables. In boxes waiting to be put into my computer catalog listing. Waiting to be shelved.  Waiting on the top step to be carried down to shelving in the basement.

And, as much as I love new books – their smell and feel – I adore used books. In my library, I have many, many used books that sit proudly beside the new ones. What can be better for a bibliophile than holding a used book and wondering – who was it that last held this book and read through the pages. Or, just held it to their bosom because it was a book!

Better yet, is a used book with someone’s name inscribed inside. Either on the fly leaf or the title page. Some person’s name. Perhaps, it is the name of the author – a signed original. Almost all of the books I have authored by my favorite poet Ted Kooser are signed. All of those Kooser books that have been gifts to friends and relatives are also signed. Yes, all of them!

Perhaps, the inscribed name is that of the recipient. Who can this Filligas Finn be, I ask myself. What is his (probably)?, her? heritage? That often sends me to the web to see what the heritage of “Finn” as a surname really is. And, to my delight, I find that Finn is a name from the Gaelic – that’s Irish born, folks. Even more delightful is that when I had my DNA determined, I have DNA from County Dublin, Ireland. There is more to this name identification than I can account for.

There was a time when my collection was right at five thousand books. A couple who lived in Illinois sponsored a scholarship for Native American students so they could attend college. Their scholarship program could be credited with accountants, nurses, physicians, teachers – competent adults in all walks of life. We talked about the elementary schools from which these exemplary students hailed. What I learned is that their schools had difficulty finding enough funding for proper libraries.

A large portion of my collection at that time was children’s books. And, so, I donated about a thousand books to an elementary school chosen by my friends. What that meant for me was my collection went down to about four thousand books. Larry used to say that when I purchased a book to add to the collection, I had to give one away. When I gave away the thousand books to the elementary school, I asked him if that meant that I could purchase a thousand more for my collection. He did not give me an answer!

My home as a child did not have many books. I only remember one, actually. It was a story book with many different stories – one per page, I think. Today, I don’t know if we didn’t have books in my home because my parents just weren’t “book people.” Or, if the household budget didn’t allow for such extras. A house over our heads, food on the table, clothes on our backs – those seemed to be the priorities.

As my father aged, he began reading Zane Grey books. I’m pretty sure that he read all that had been published. My sister, Clara, and I decided it would be a good idea if we could understand this “Zane Grey” thing. So, we each purchased Riders of the Purple Sage and read it cover to cover. Whew! It was not a tough read, but Clara said she had never read a book with the words “purple sage” on every page!

I also remember that my first job (albeit, as a volunteer) was in the library of my high school. You know that I’ve said before that I consider myself a child of God with a life that is God-directed. Well, as I look back over my life, I know that that high school library was the place for me to be at the time. The school librarian recommended that I apply at the city’s public library when I wanted to be employed. There is no doubt in my mind that her recommendation made it possible for me to work at the McClelland Public Library (Pueblo’s library) under the direction of Ms. Claire Knox, the librarian.

Under the tutelage of Ms. Knox, I developed skills to go on to work in the college library, met my husband in that library, and worked there all of my college years. In addition, Ms. Knox arranged for me to receive a grant to attend college. (Again, there was no possibility that my parents could afford to support me and send me to college.) As I said earlier – working in that high school library with BOOKS made the rest of my life a possibility.

My favorite book (other than the poetry books by Kooser) is a children’s book by Rudyard Kipling. Elephant’s Child contains such music. When reading the words, “Go to the banks of the great, grey, green Limpopo River all set about by fever-trees  and find out …” one falls in love with Kipling’s writings. Today, however, I suppose that I could not read this to a school room of children.

Why? Because it talks about a family of elephants and giraffes and other animals that is prone to spanking. And, when the elephant’s child, prone to asking ever-so-many questions with his satiable curiosity, goes to the banks of the Limpopo and finds out what the crocodile has for dinner, and comes back to spank all of his dear families (after all, they spanked him first), things get a little messy.

But, he never lets anyone touch the Kolokolo bird, sitting in the wait-a-bit thorn bush. It was the Kolokolo bird who told him how to get the answer to his question, “What does the crocodile have for dinner?” I’m sorry that I can’t read that story to kids, any more. Everything turns out in the end. The spanking stops. Very personally, I think that the children are denied hearing the music in those words.

Books and I have had a long, long history, together. Today, my collection is probably back up to about five thousand. Oh, I did give more than a hundred books (I didn’t count) to Lawrence University (Appleton, Wisconsin) for their literacy program. Their teacher education literacy program created a library for their students to use in planning for reading education. Part of those books was set of books written by Ann Nolan Clark. Her concern was that the books used for teaching reading did not address the differences she saw daily in her students – Indian children and children with different heritage backgrounds. So, she wrote the books for those students. One is a Newberry Award Winner. Ms. Clark knew what she was doing and, by writing her collection, served children of many different cultural backgrounds.

My specific hope is that having those volumes in the teacher-prep program illustrates that, as a teacher of children with different cultural backgrounds, if materials are not available, the educator can provide those materials – even if they must be created by that educator.

Today, reading books is extremely difficult for me. Having the diagnosis of wet AMD, I no longer have the facility to read books in the fonts in which they are printed. Daughter #3 helps with this by getting books for my Kindle/Fire when they are available. If I do need to read a book-book, I have an Eschenbach magnifying camera that helps. To use the computer, I use bolding along with larger fonts. When an e-mailed document arrives with an unreadable font, I simply copy to document over into a Word document, raise the font and bold it. I cannot do that with books, however.

My long association with books will continue. I still really love books, new and used. I will continue to order what I think is appropriate, give away those that friends or relatives would like, and simply enjoy being surrounded with all kinds of books, holding them in my hands. Hardbound. Paperback, Kindle. Whatever really works for me is what I will use.

Happy reading!

Be Safe and Be Well
The Cranky Crone
Thoughtful comments are always welcome.