Proust #24 What is your favourite occupation?
I’m going to assume that Proust isn’t talking about a job, but about my favourite pastime.
For as long as I can remember, I have loved reading. My mom tells me I could read when I was four years old. I know that in kindergarten I must have borrowed “Ann Likes Red” from the school library a dozen times. That might not sound like much, but there were SO many books to choose from that to bring home the same book more than once was a big deal.
It didn’t take long before I graduated to chapter books and it was a good thing too, because books and our school library became a refuge for me. When the fickle wind of childhood friendship blew the wrong direction, which it did with regularity, I’d retreat to the library or take my book outside, find a kind of hideout away from the playground and disappear into another world.
In grade 3 or 4, if the teacher had to leave the classroom, I would be handed the class novel and asked to read aloud until she returned. It’s another love that I have shared with my family for many years. Even now, with our children grown, I still read aloud to my husband. It kept the kids quiet and well behaved on long car trips, and still helps us pass the time when we travel. I wish I had kept track of all the books I’ve read aloud to our family, there sure have been a lot!
We got a small allowance as kids and we’d make the trip into town every two weeks for grocery shopping and a visit to our grandparents. Mom and Dad would go to the Co-op store to grocery shop and my little sister and I would head across the street to Woolworth’s or the Met department store. There was a big bin of books and I’d spend every penny of my allowance on a new one, the Bobsey Twins or Nancy Drew, Misty of Chincoteague.
I just spent three days at the Surrey International Writers Conference, surrounded by writers of all kinds, from the absolute beginner to authors like Anne Perry, Jack Whyte, and Terry Fallis. It was educational, inspiring and amazing! And as different as we all were, one thread was common to all. We all love books. We love the feel of them, the way they can transport us to other worlds, the way they can transform us. Books are unbelievably powerful.
As one speaker at the conference said, no one here has ever met Charles Dickens but we know him by his words, we are still inspired by his words, we are still changed by his words.
Books take us to special places where there are pirates and kings, genies and talking animals, travellers and ghosts, magicians and unlikely friendships. We travel to other worlds, outer space, the past, and the future. We learn lessons, we fall in love, and we are forever changed by ink on paper.
Yes, I love books.
I loved this post, Cathy. I, too, have always loved books. They have been escape, entertainment and inspiration to me.
Thank you Connie! I always feel a bit sorry for people who don’t read, they really don’t know what they’re missing!