My Favorite Books from Childhood

 

Are you surprised that this book features a witch?

I have always been an avid reader.  We would take weekly trips to the library as a child and I’ve tried to do the same for my kids.  Dino of course got way more Barnes and Noble and The Strand than Ana has, but that was because Newark’s libraries were and still are ill equipped for actual bibliophiles.

The Dorrie books were my absolute favorite, my mother was probably sick of reading them to me.  Now Ana is enjoying them and she wants more!  I am lucky that I have two vintage copies printed in the 70’s.  I absolutely love old books.  The smell, the feel, the sound of the thicker paper stock turning.  It’s all very different from what they print today.

For Yule this year I have told my babies that we are setting a new tradition from now on.  Yule is for books and new journals.  Birthdays are for sweaters.  Because Ana is still little she gets a Barbie advent calendar and Dino will get one with chocolate, he’s sadly too old for hot wheels anymore.  He’s also too young for any of the more specialty advent boxes, like pen inks, or whiskey, I’d go for cheese, but we’re terribly lactose intolerant in this house and can only stomach feta.

Anyway.

I am going to try and source a couple more Dorrie books for Ana for Yule.  Her grandparents can get her toys, or really I should ask for Barnes and Noble gift cards.  My babies need books from their mommy.  While I can get new paperback copies from Amazon, I really would prefer to buy old used hardcovers.

There are other titles I loved as well, thankfully Ana has read them.  I always preferred Maurice Sendak to Dr. Seuss.  Another good one was In a Dark, Dark Room.  I remember getting a copy for Dino and Shadow flipped.  He was afraid of it, said he had hated that book as a child.  He was probably as old as I am now and he was terrified of the girl with the ribbon around her neck.  I laughed, how could I not?  I grew up loving the macabre thanks to my mother, but apparently only Jesus was allowed in his home.

Speaking of which, his mom still has his old books and reads them to Ana over FaceTime.  Too many times in my life I’ve lost my books.  Guess that’s why I bought the Kindle.  Everything is backed up to the cloud.  The Paperwhite is water proof and could live through flooding.

Nonetheless, I am a firm believer in physical books.  Today I spent time cataloguing the rest of Ana’s library into my Good Read’s account.  When she was a baby we were keeping track manually with a booklet “1000 Books Before Kindergarten”, I’m sure she made it well over that, but it would have been nice to know what she did read.  I’ve only catalogued 154 books for her so far and that’s the past two years.  No where near what’s she’s actually read.  I wish I had thought to use Good Reads for her sooner, as well as for myself.  There are books I recall but don’t remember the title of, so my list is only 458.

I really wish I had more space for books in this apartment, but there is always that fear of loosing them again.

And now, it’s reading time!

📖