I love books. I love the way they smell…even the old musty ones. I love the way the paper feels on my fingers. I love that I can dog-ear a page and hear the voice of my Jr. High English teacher tsk-tsking. I love the weight of them in my hand and the sound they make when they hit the table.
Before we curbed our spending I used to be a bit compulsive about buying books. Sure, I would shop the bargain area of Barnes and Noble, but then I just thought I could buy more because it was such a good deal. I could have gone to the library, but those books weren’t mine. I wanted books to build up my personal library.
Since I majored in English in college, I kept all of the books from those classes. I kept my Shakespeare, my Poe, my Twain. I kept Many Luscious Lollipops, a gorgeously illustrated book about adjectives I got when I was in student teaching. I kept my Steinbeck, my Swift, my Cather. I even kept the novel one of my English professors published (it wasn’t really my style, but he signed it, so I kept it).
That’s how I ended up with such a large book collection. Now I am a mom so I collect children’s books. I am considering homeschooling so I collect books on education, math, early reading, phonics. I am an (amateur) cook so I collect cookbooks. I am a beginning gardener so I collect books on growing vegetables, flowers, trees. I am a…
I am always growing into new interests so my book collection will always be growing…and when I am done building my collection, I hope to have taught my children to love books as much as I do.
a pinch of homestead 