The joke in our family is that I went to grad school & spent gazoodles of money to become a librarian, and my sister became a library director before I did. Actually, the closest I've come is "Assistant Director of Library Services" which sounds pretty good, but I think pretty much everyone at the library where I work has that same title.
You could say we're a family of librarians...my dad, sister and daughter have all filled-in as substitutes at the library where Heather is director. And we're a family of readers, too. Growing up I remember my mom reading quite a bit, but not my dad. But wow, I can't believe how much he reads now! When the harvesting is done, and winter is here, he'll really be back into the swing of things. I love giving him suggestions of books and hearing about the mistakes he finds in them....he would be a great editor. Hey, maybe you could do that on the side next year when you "retire", Dad!
When we were kids, our house was always filled with books: encyclopedias, bible stories, Time-Life series, romances, you name it, but the Childcraft series was always a special favorite of mine. Fifteen volumes filled with tales of artists, historic figures, fairy tales, arts and crafts, recipes, you name it. It was wonderful! I'm not sure whatever happened to it, though; I'll have to do some investigating because now I'm really in the mood to reminisce!
When Ashley was young, she was not a big book fan. Oh, we tried...we belonged to book clubs, went to the library, bought tons of books at secondhand stores and book fairs, subscribed to magazines, etc. etc. Even though she didn't like being read to, one thing she did enjoy was being told stories. Once when we lived in Decorah she got on a Beauty & the Beast kick, and I think I had to tell her that story every night for a month. Somewhere along the way, though, she ended up really liking books. In fact, she has a huge collection now; whenever we want to stop at a bookstore she moans & groans because she doesn't want to go in, but who always ends up buying the most? You guessed it!
Which brings me to the point of this particular posting. Last week, Heather, Amanda, Will & I went to Waterloo for an afternoon of shopping. Of course, we had to stop at Barnes and Noble; Amanda & Will went in while Heather & I were looking at books in the entryway. But as soon as we got into the store, we could hear "MaMa MaMa MaMa MaMa". :) We followed the mamas to an excited and overwhelmed Will. I tell you, seeing such an exuberance for books by our 15-month-old nephew sure made Aunt Heather & Anut JoJo awfully proud! It was tough to tear him away from the books when it was time to go, especially the tractor ones! In fact, the tractor book with wheels, which was
supposed to be a stocking stuffer, had to be wrested out of his hands while he screamed, in order to be paid for. Ah, be still my heart. I just hope his love of books continues; with this family he definitely won't be in short supply!
