I enjoy all kinds of different styles and genres as well. Around the house I have books piled or laid in various places which I am reading at any given time, scraps of paper, business cards, pieces of yarn or whatever else I can grab marking my place in each. In places where I frequently stop there may even be a - I shudder to admit it - pile of books I am working my way through.
Now that last line caused some of you to instantly smirk, chuckle and say something like "I bet there is a big stack of them in the bathroom," followed by a hearty, "hyuk, hyuk, hyuk," or something very close to that. Well, you are wrong. In many a home the bathroom (throne room) is a sacred sanctuary of silence and solace. I understand, I can relate. However I don't leave books in the "throne room" out of respect to the books. In my mind that would be akin to eating in the "throne room", which is the height of futility (or maybe efficiency). Now back to the crux of the matter...
I know I am not the only one to posses hundreds if not thousands of books. I am admittedly an addict as many others apparently are. I feel pretty comfortable saying this because it only takes a stroll around the local yard/rummage/garage sales or thrift stores to find tons (I weighed them one Saturday with a scale I bought on site for a quarter) of paper backs, hard backs, texts, reference, coffee table and various other tomes. You can literally pick them up for a dime a dozen.
There was a time when only the rich could afford books and in some nations today they are still rarities. During medieval times books were so hard to come by that only the richest people had libraries and some of those started universities based simply on the fact that he owned a number of books. (If you want to get an idea of what went into creating books in that period and how expensive and time consuming it would be now check http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/) But not today, books... well you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a bunch of books these days. And if you are appalled at swinging a dead cat, read a book: Tom Sawyer.
A lot has been typed to this point and the purpose of it all is to say just this: I am glad that books are everywhere. I am glad that people still read them, pass them on and read some more. I am glad that printing technology allows books to be as common as a pack o' lies at a political fundraiser. I am glad that in this country you can access books at libraries, stores and even garage sales and learn about anything you want, experience far away places, meet exotic people and even laugh about inane topics through the pages of a book. If you don't read books it is high time to start. Now.
Well that is my initial blog post. Why a tame topic like books? Because books are all about reading and writing, just like this blog.
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