we ♡ books

we ♡ books here at Black Street ! remember this little illustration ? discovered again during the big clean out of last weekend

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. 
They are the destination, and the journey.They are home.

Anna Quindlen - How Reading Changed My Life

I love books, I have since I was a young girl. My parents, especially my mother was/is a crazed reader. I grew up in a house with bookshelves everywehere. Books were to be kept, saved, shelved for a next time - you never knew you might want to read that book again. I was exposed to the library also as a young child. Oh my, I remember the library and the librarian vividly from my childhood a big rectangular room with very high ceilings in our town hall. But most of all I remember the books, at that time and my age they were mostly picture books, with glossy plastic protective sleeves and they had a scent. That wonderful and distinct, slightly musty smell of a library book. It's always smelled like comfort to me. When I was a little older I devoured the animal character chapter books by Thornton W. Burgess. They were small hard covered books, each one a different colour and I remember their spines lined up on my bookcase - of course I was trying to gather and read the whole collection. Later still I thrilled along with Nancy Drew and her gang, on the edge of my comfy chair, biting my nails, heart thudding a little (it's funny how reading those books as an adult they sadly don't carry the same zing). We were always given a bit of money when the (monthly I think) Scholastic book catalogue came out at school. From these catalogue ordered books I was hooked on another mystery series Encyclopedia Brown a young boy and his dog who solved the perplexing puzzles around his neighbourhood and small town. Around that same time I discovered non-fiction and began reading biographies - of Madam Curie, Jacques Cousteau & Christiaan Barnard and for awhile (6th or 7th grade) I was convinced I would have a career in science - an oceanographer perhaps or  maybe I'd become an open heart surgeon. Books were an education, an escape & an assistant of my dreams.

At this point in my life I read for most of the same reasons. I continue to love non-fiction. I love to learn about nature or science or the mind. I devour books that would be classified as self-help, books about why we worry, about our imaginations, creativity or a favourite study topic of mine - anxiety. I love to experience the thrills of mountain climbing, wilderness hiking or solo sailing in the wild southern seas all while safe, snug & tucked into my nest of down & flannel in the chocolate brown bedroom. And I love fiction, especially at bedtime (almost my only reading time). I try to pull myself away from the TTD* by 8:30pm which is hard these days as I have such wonderfully fun & challenging work projects that I love to be working on. You could call me a workaholic or you could call me someone extremely passionate about what I do. The fact that love, passion & salary live happily in the same sentence in my life is something I am eternally grateful for ... but by 8:30 each evening I'm often kind of wound up, head spinning, too much going on in my mind.

For that reason I especially love reading fiction at night because it calms me, opening the pages to my bookmarked spot is like taking a little tranquilizer or a big slug of something hard, it shoos the monkey mind away as begin to read and drift gradually into the lives, the dramas and cares of other people in other places. I swear this reading habit of mine is one of the most important habits/rituals I have in keeping my sanity. Reading is a gift I give myself. I love books. I love reading & I love the library.

I'm currently reading Bill Gaston's The World - it's wonderful, quirky & perfect. A book I picked up on the new book shelf at the library Thursday, I'd never hear of Bill or this book. A lovely fluke.

In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own. 

Anna Quindlen - How Reading Changed My 


 I can't mention books or reading without mentioning the FaceBook for book lovers. Goodreads.com it's a fantastic community, a place to keep track of all the books you've read & want to read and I try to bully all most of my friends into friending me there rather than over at FB. I asked someone the other day what they meant by FB (that's how outta touch I am with FB) but GR - please friend me there ;-)

and yes, that's Oliver on the stack of books he's wearing his office duds.

* TTD my beautiful big teak topped desk home of creative empire building headquarters