Books - Week Three

Often we give a book for a baby gift. Sometimes a copy ends up in my library shelf. I have a small collection of children's books. Some are ones I recall from my youth. I love to read them to our grandchildren. The great books of my youth are still great.

When Sam and Sage come we pick out one or more to read each night. I have such a fun time sharing the books I love with them. With the older grand girls we had our favorites that we would read over and over. Lars is a polar bear with adventures that we all enjoyed. Hannah would most often pick The Great Pig Escape because she found it so very funny. Kelsey would set on my lap and let me read to her a stack of books she had chosen. Most of the time before we were done she would have me read every book I had bought for her two year old mind.





Our daughter-in-law keeps a book list. Actually she has two; one is a list of the books she has read and the other of books she wants to read. Well if it is never too late, my list is now a work in progress. There is no way to ever recall all the books I have read but I can start a list. So just for fun and for my own enjoyment I have begun to make my lists. The books I want to read my never get any farther than random slips of paper but the list of books I have read is becoming a computer reality. I just do not know what to do with the half read books lying around the house. I can count at least half a dozen books that either may or may not ever get finished. These are not books that I have no interest in finishing. They are left incompletely read for a variety of reason but I have hopes of finishing them sometime.
Yesterday while doing one of our favorite things to do on a Saturday afternoon, also known as spending time at the local Barns and Nobel Bookstore, I wondered the store with a paper in hand writing down some book titles and authors of books that go on my list of book read. I get my books from three main sources. Our local library, book stores, and my sister Cindi are the three ways I come by the majority of books. Running behind my top three sources is my daughter-in-law. She almost always gives me a book for Christmas. As she is an avid reader of books, a college journalism major and former editor she has her senses in tuned to looking for good literature.
I do admit to being a wee bit taken back by her gift book this Christmas. It was the title that hit me a bit by surprise. Not everyone can give their mother-in-law a book with the title The Household Guide to Dying. The book is by an Australian writer Debra Adelaide. This book is a definite good read and I hope it jumps the pond. Debra writes well, has a good tale to tell, made me think about life and death, and I enjoyed catching some of the little things that make Australian life a bit different from our American ways.

I bought The Hundred Dresses last week. Last night I read it and now need to find more Eleanor Estes books. I think I read The Moffats.

One of my favorite college classes was a Children's Literature class. Our instructor read out load most class periods. She introduced me to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Sometimes we would beg her to read another chapter.