Sunday, March 3, 2019

I Hoard Books, and I Blame that Cat Who Wears a Hat--Part 2

Some of my earliest memories are visits to our town's library--a two-story 1960s era building only a few miles from our house.  Even after all these years, I can visualize the rows of tall metal shelves and the colorful spines of the books that filled them.  My first taste of independence came from choosing which books I would take home and walking over to the circulation desk for the obligatory "stamping" by the librarian.  At home, I'd put the books on the shelf over my desk for safekeeping until I could read them over and over again.

But the day always came.  The new friends I found at the library would have to be returned.  I understood the process and the concept of borrowing, but it was never easy. 

Enter the Dr. Seuss Book Club. 

I don't know where my mother got the idea, but the books started coming, two at a time, in the mail.  I'd open the package, put the books on the shelf over my desk for safekeeping, and read them over and over again. And then they stayed.  And I read them again. 

What started with The Cat in the Hat; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; and Hop on Pop; became A Fish Out of Water, Robert the Rose Horse, and Are You My Mother? Over the next few years, my little home library grew.  One shelf was full.  Then another. 

By the time my subscription to the Dr. Seuss Book Club came to an end, I was hooked.  Having my own collection of books gave me choices every day.  My visits to the library hadn't stopped, but there was a unique joy of having a book that I could keep--to read any time I wanted.  And that joy remains to this day.

Sometimes, when I look at my collection, I say, "How did this happen?  Why is it so hard for me to give away (or even sell) my books?"  But I know the answer--these books tell the story of my life.  I look to the shelf and remember the book club meeting, the grad school class, the trip we took, the garden we planted.  Not all the memories are sweet, of course, but if the book is still on my shelf, I've decided that that part of my life needs to stay part of my story. 

I trace it back to those first books--the rhyming word play of Dr. Seuss that both challenged and comforted me.  The beginning of the story that is my life.

And remember those tiny grandsons I spoke of yesterday?  On the bottom shelf of the bookcase beside the guest room, among the other treasures I've purchased recently, are some aged, well-loved, Book Club editions from the Dr. Seuss Book Club.  The story continues. . .





4 comments:

  1. These books tell the story of my life! There's something very special about owning a book. And to think that Marie Kondo says we can only keep 30 books...

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  2. I know, right? We decided she MUST have meant 30 books on your bedside table. . . 🤗

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  3. ...and we are waiting eagerly for next chapter. Hopefully it will include the favorite story you are reading to the tiny grand.

    Best.

    Purviben

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  4. I love how you have turned this into a saga...as it is....

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