Hello Book!What are you up to?
Keeping yourself to yourself?
Shut in between your covers,
A prisoner high on a shelf!
Come in Book!
What is your story?
Haven't you ever been read?
Do you think I would just pass by you,
And pick me a comic instead?
No way, Book!
I am your reader.
I am your reader.
I open you up... set you free.
Listen, I have a secret.
Will you share your secret with me?
Nice poem... huh? Okay, but here is the thing. Karen Joy McCoy and I helped third graders down in Texas memorize this little poem when we were assisting at their school in 1993. I'm sure the third graders have LONG forgotten it (like before they left class that day) but it has stuck with me like a pound of chocolate on my thighs. (Ummm... chocolate...) Sorry, where was I? Oh, yes. Books.I LOVE books. Love them. I love picking one up for the first time and speculating on what treasure lies between it's well-bound cover. I enjoy the smell when you open a book for the first time - or the first time in a long time. I relish that moment when you know that all of your housework, appointments, and plans are just going to have to wait because there is NO WAY that you can continue on with "real" life until you know the ending of this well crafted tale. I feel both satisfaction, and sorrow when I close the book at the conclusion of an appreciated journey. And, maybe the best part is, after the book has been devoured and put back to rest, there is another waiting to be discovered. Reading is just a marvelous escape - one that can't be duplicated through movies, TV or any other source. Books are a ticket to a far away land, a private emotion that stirs in you different than in another reader, a wealth of information that someone meticulously recorded just for you to discover.
These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice... and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart. ~Gilbert Highet
So go... read something far more edifying than this. Read a great book!
.JPG)
9 comments:
Brilliant! No wonder that, even with all of your other qualities, I often feel that it is your mind I most appreciate. And by the way, I could really use a good recommendation as I have been experiencing a literary drought for some time now. In fact, if not for your blog, my life would be completely devoid of quality reading material. Help me.
Carlie picked BOOKS for her gratitude today, too!
I adore the little poem. And YOU! You should be a writer yourself...oh wait...you most definitely are.
Books rule!!! I love your post, as always!!
Isn't the smell of Barnes and Noble one of the best smells in the world??
AMEN!!!
On the worst of days, just walking into a bookstore or library and inhaling can do miracles to calm my troubled heart.
PS - tell RM that he'd like anything by Michael Pollan, but I'd recommend "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or "Second Nature: A Gardener's Education" more highly for him than say "The Botany of Desire." Very readable, non-fiction, and food-oriented. One of the few authors I actually am willing to (occasionally) track to see if I'm missing anything they've published when I wasn't watching.
I second everything you said. I was actually planning to go to both Barnes and Noble and the library today. Ahh...books.
I'm in love with your gratitude series and this last post. Loved it! Made me want to forget the chores and snuggle up in bed all day!
love your blog--so cute, love all the gratitude posts!!! thanks for the comment on my blog, glad to know i am not the only one who feels like a hero just by getting ALL the kids loaded up!
I'm amazed you still remember that poem after all these years!! Just goes to prove how amazing you are in every way...
Thank you for blogging. Your insight, wisdom and humor brighten my days more than you know. I am grateful for you!
Hugs,
KJMC
Post a Comment