Books

Old books are like old friends --- reliable and dependable and comfortable. You know what you're gonna get and can pick and choose who you spend time with depending on your mood. I have had friends comment that I should just take books out of the library, seeing as how I go through them like water. However, I like owning books, good books, books that I can come back to again and again and again. They are a comfort of sorts for me.

I also love recommending books that I love and having other people love them, too. Now I also have my trashy books --- British Chick Lit, mainly. These are books that I get form the bargain tables or school fairs and charity sales. Books that don't require a lot of attention or thought. Brain porn, if you will. Not just any brain porn though. I am actually quite picky about the trash that I read. Sue Grafton of the alphabetized Kinsey Milhone novels is a favourite, as are Wendy Holden and Jill Mansell. I am new to Stephanie Plumb, female bounty hunter, but what I read thus far has been very entertaining. Books in this category are not as "precious" and they sort of rotate on and off the shelves, with the older ones finding their way back to charity sales and the like.

My father is a great source of "quality" reading material --- he is constantly buying books and will lend them out, providing you sign the book loaning book. I am serious. He actually has one. I tend to borrow 10 to 12 on each visit home and return the ones from the previous visit. This makes my luggage a tad heavy, but is well worth it. Books from my last trip home include: The Kite Runner, The Piano Tuner and The Bookseller of Kabal. All three excellent reads.

I got to thinking about this when I grabbed "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters" and "Seymour an Introduction", two short stories by J.D. Salinger, off my bookshelf in my mad dash to leave the house this morning. I haven't read this book in years and got thoroughly engrossed on the bus this a.m. Say what you will about Catcher in the Rye, but Salinger was a phenomenal writer. He probably still is, but he hasn't published anything in over 50 years.

Wouldn't it be cool if J.D. Salinger had a Blog?