Going on a Book Hunt

Poor little Mika was not a happy girl yesterday.  She had to go in for her next scheduled well-baby check which means another series of shots.  Ouch!  I can't blame her.  Her Nana doesn't like shots either but I tried not to let her know about that little prejudice of mine.

So today we're planning a fun activity to erase the blues from yesterday.  Mika's mommy tells me that the local public library is having their book sale today.  I think it sounds like a perfect way to spend some time with my grandbaby.

She already has shown that she really enjoys books.  After all, she comes from a long line of booklovers including her mommy, daddy, and grandparents.  Plus she has been having marvelous books read to her since she was a newborn.

So I think we're going to have a fun outing today, if only the weather will cooperate.  Houston has been assaulted with heavy rains and more is moving in today.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the rain will move on quickly so that little Mika and Nana can go out and do some book hunting, tagging, and bagging.  Happy reading!

Yawning Through Echoes of My Reading Past

When I was a kid, I read all the time.  I still do.  It's been a lifelong habit.  My mom would come around the corner and find me with my nose buried in a book.

"Why don't you go outside and play?" she'd ask.

"Mmmm,"  I'd respond, my mind far away on whatever great adventure I was currently reading about

When her nagging to go outside and be a regular kid would get to be too annoying, I'd grab my book and  find a place to hide.  Who needed Jimmy Cooper or Patty Blake as playmates when I had Peter Pan and Wendy as friends?

The worst battles came at night.  Mom would want me to turn off the light and go to sleep.  After all, I usually had school in the morning and she was a firm believer in being fresh and rested for studious endeavors.  I, on the other hand, hated to have to close whatever book I was reading and call it a day.  It became a battle of wits.  I started turning off the light but grabbing a flashlight and reading under the covers.  That worked as long as the batteries lasted or my supply of cool air was depleted on those hot summer nights in a non-air conditioned house.    Then in one of those strokes of good fortune, my mother dragged me off to learn Braille.  She thought I was going to lose my eyesight (thankfully I didn't) and she wanted to give me the tools to cope.  What she actually ended up giving me was a means to read books in the total darkness.  Wow!  It was great!

Fast forward many years and here I am, still reading every chance I get and still not wanting to turn off the lights at the end of the day to get my rest.  My hubby is long-suffering.  He has perfected the art of falling asleep with a light still on in the bedroom.  But I usually am still clinging to my book (electronic or traditional) until it hits me in the face as it slips from my hands when I doze off.  That's why it shouldn't surprise me that I'm pretty tired this morning.  I was up late reading.  I just couldn't put my Kindle down until...CLUNK....it hit me in the face and that gave me the motivation to turn it off and turn off the light.  I guess there are some habits that just never change.  Sorry about that, Mom!

Growing a Reader

Books have always been important to my daughter-in-law, my son, and to me.  That's why they were introduced early on to my little granddaughter.  She's been read to since she was a newborn.  The benefits are starting to pay off.  This little gal really interacts with books beyond what you would think a 4-month-old would be doing.  Yesterday we were in the car and I noticed her staring quizzically at something.  I followed her gaze and saw that she was staring at a book that was upside down.

"I'm just not figuring this out," she seemed to be saying.  "Something is wrong here."

I flipped the book over and she seemed to be more at ease, settling back in her chair and studying the pages intently.

Then the distractions of Mr. Froggy's fingers proved to be too much for our budding reader and her attentions turned toward picking out which digit would be the tastiest.

Once she had her snack firmly in her mouth, she was back to studying the pages of her book.  Ah, yes.  She's a girl who takes after her Nana.  Snacking and reading!  It doesn't get much better than that.

Joys of a booksale

What a day! We helped out most of the day at the opening day of our college's library booksale. Since I've worked at that library, I've never been there for opening day. I've always helped with the setup the evening before and then just browsed through the books on my lunch hours during the work week. But now that I'm retired, I decided that my hubby and I would be cashiers on opening day.



Let me tell you, when those doors opened, it was a mad dash down the steps and to the sale tables. Book dealers and book afficianados alike were elbowing for space and grasping treasures to their chests (or their boxes). We even had folks with little handheld scanners this year that were scanning books to, I assume, find out what the current market value was of the books. How nifty was that?



It was interesting to see the old school dealers and the "new school dealers", too. The folks I would call "new school dealers" were more like house flippers.....get in, grab books, bag them, do a fast turnaround, make money off of them, and then go out and buy more books. The "old school dealers" were more apt to take their time and have lists with them of books they were keeping an eye out for or be looking for titles that they knew regular customers were wanting.



Then there were students carefully counting out their coins to purchase their treasures. I was apt to find them muttering over copies they had just discovered on a table or crawling under sale tables to view the books that we had stacked on the floor until there was room enough to bring them up onto the tables.



I was particularly delighted to wait on the booklovers who just couldn't stay away from the sale and made two to three trips in to purchase more books today. One wonderful man told us that he was concerned that he might have to reinforce the beams of his home because he had so many books there that he was afraid that the weight was going to overtax the load-bearing abilities of his floors. Now THAT'S a reader!



Tonight I'm footsore and weary but already looking forward to heading back to the sale this week to do some browsing of my own. Who knows what treasures await me?