CHOOSE A BOOK, AND READ IT TO THE END!

There is a little store I love to visit whenever we are in St. Rose doing our grocery shopping.  It has a few isles of new dollar-store-type items that you can't find anywhere else around here, and then the rest of the store is gently used items much like a Value Village.

I wander through the craft section every time I go there, and I have picked up quite a few useful things for my studio.

But the best section, is the book section at the back of the store. All books are .50.  Doesn't matter if they are fiction, cookbooks, craft books... they are always the same price, .50!

Last week I stumbled upon 5 books from the Elm Creek Quilt Novel Series, by Jennifer Chiaverini  ... I bought them all!  I have read a couple of these books before, but the five I bought I have not read, so I am happy to own them.

I am delighted to always have a new book in my hand to read.  The small library here in town, has really good books.  I usually take six novels out every three weeks, and hordes of magazines and craft books as well.  Now that the garden is in and growing and the yard is taking shape, I have more time to catch up on some reading, and I am enjoying having the luxury of time to do just that.

I just finished a good book called "Sea Glass" by Anita Shreve.   I have never read from this Author before, but now I am going to be searching for more of her work.

I have novels on my ipad, but I just can't get into the practise of reading on a device.  Call me old-fashioned, even fickle - but when I read, I want a book in my hand, not an electronic device.  To begin with , staring at a device for hours at a time just is not all that great for one's eyes.  Tell the truth - how many of us did not wear glasses until we started working on computers for entire days at a time.... my hand is shooting up in the air here!

Secondly - it's just plain awkward to fill a bathtub up with bubbles,  then settle down in the nice sudsy water to read a couple of chapters on a device - to say nothing of a downright expensive tragedy, if that device should slip down into the water while you are reaching for your glass of wine!

Nope - paper books, or nothing - if a book falls in the water, you just shake it off, hang it to dry and it might be wrinkled, but usually it is just fine.

As a writer, I know the frustrations of getting your work published in paper form.  Now, however  a lot of new writers are publishing their first books on-line.  This certainly is great way to encourage new writers to keep writing - but in the same sense, I hear frustration when the buzz wears off, and those same writers who published so quickly electronically, realize that they might have shot themselves in the foot - because serious publishers don't want works that have been previously published electronically.

And yes, I am still writing, even though my first published work of fiction wasn't published the way I thought it would be...  I am still so happy I published on paper.  I have a book - yes it's out of print now - but still - I have a book that's my work - on paper!

Books are important, and those of us who love to read them will never stop searching for our favourite volumes of whatever it is we enjoy reading.  I can't imagine a world without books, or a world without libraries either.

What a sad day it would be if we could no longer while away hours moving up and down the isles of endless books, reading jacket covers and choosing those we want to get lost in for a short time.  The fun of choosing equals the fun of reading the full book, as far as I am concerned.  And then there is the feeling you get as you walk out the door with a huge stack under your arm - the anticipation, the "I can't wait to get home - which one will I choose to read first?" feeling...

Awe gosh - there really is nothing better than that!