Grateful #1

If I were to list all the things in my life I am grateful for, it would be a long list indeed. I could list all those things or I could tackle them one at a time. The latter seems like much more fun.

Today I am grateful for books. I bow to the person who first put words on paper - or parchment or papyrus or a goatskin - whatever it was - brilliant. I worship Guttenberg as a minor diety.

Books. I have never been to Disneyland but I imagine the feeling I get when I walk into a bookstore is very similar to that of a five-year-old entering the Magic Kingdom.

I love everything about books. I love the way they feel and smell. I love the solid heft of a good, hard cover tome. I love leafing through the pages and sticking a bookmark where I leave off so that I can come back to it at leisure.

I love the experience of owning books. I have books in my bookcase and in my dining room hutch and on top of my dining room hutch. Every shelf I own is a book shelf. I have books in the kitchen and the bedroom. I have stacks of books on the coffee table, the end tables, the night stands, the benches and stools. Even though I send books home to my mother every month and lend them to my friends, I still accumulate more and more books. They give me joy and escape and stimulate my imagination. I willingly and easily slip into fantasy worlds. I love all kinds of books. I have, in the last few months, read a history of Canada, several travel books, at least one mystery and a dozen or more literary fiction books.

Books are my education. Many times I will pause, put my book down, and go to Google Earth to pinpoint the place I am reading about - and then continue on to read a history of the site. I stop to identify words I may not be overly familiar with.

Books have influenced my travel plans, my food choices, my decor and probably even my choice in romantic partners.

Today I bought only four new books - and I do mean only. My usual haul at Chapter is eight or more at a time. I bought "Wild" which I can't wait to start: the story of a young woman who decides to hike the Pacific Crest Trail (almost 3,000 K) with little preparation; The Art of Fielding, which Chapters/Indigo says should have been nominated for and won this year's Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Europe on 5 Wrong Turns a Day and Fifty Shades of Grey.

I can't imagine my life without books and thankfully, I don't have to. Books have changed the world and will continue to do so. Is there a battle brewing between books and ebooks? I don't know but I don't think so. I believe there is room for both and I embrace both. The main thing is to read and read and read. And then to have them and love them and read them - in some cases over and over again.

Did I mention that I am grateful for books?

Oh yeah.