A Year of Blogging: August 9, 2011

August 9 was 'Book Lover's Day'. What a wonderful day! I have always been a bookworm. Some people might take offense to the term 'bookworm', but I cherish it. For my 16th birthday, my sister bought me a t-shirt that said something about being a bookworm (I forget what it said, that was almost 20 years ago!) from our town library. Everyone else laughed when I opened the t-shirt. I loved it! My Grandpa Wager loved to read. I remember him reading the newspaper daily. He subscribed to both the Daytona and Orlando papers, and read both cover to cover each day. Then there were books! Which is funny. I remember him reading, and I remember we were always buying books for him. But I cannot remember where all those books were stored. You would think he had a library filled with bookcases that stretched from floor to ceiling. He didn't. I don't even remember a single bookcase any place in Grandma's house. Yet he had tons of books. Grandpa and I could get lost in a bookstore. If we went to the mall with Grandma and Grandpa, Laura and Grandma usually went in one direction and Grandpa and I headed for Waldenbooks. We both could have spent hours in the bookstore. Books (or gift certificates to book stores) have always been on my wish lists for birthdays and Christmases. My love of books and of reading was given to me by Grandpa. I have no doubt about that. I suspect he had a hand in my learning to read at the age of 3. My mother read to me a lot too. She used to take my sister and I to the library each week. I would have checked out the entire Children's section if they had let me. By the time I graduated from high school, my library card was several pages long. Each year the Book Fair came to school. For one week, rows of books were set up in the gym or cafeteria. They were all for sale! For me, it was the most exciting time at school. The week before the book fair, we were given the list of available books. I poured over that list, circling the items I wanted, then narrowing it down so that it could fit in the budget Mom & Dad gave me. Which was generous compared to what most of my classmates were allowed to spend. But for a devoted bookworm, it was never enough. I have often thought the greatest gift Grandpa gave me was the love of books. I am trying to share that with Sydney and Drew. Sydney already has more books than children twice her age, and I'm working on Drew's shelf. Sydney, not quite five, loves to go to bookstores. I don't know if Drew will as well, but I'm hopeful. I have made a silent promise that I will buy them books as long as they want them. I'm a little behind blogging about this because I've been exhausted the past couple of days. And on Tuesday, I spent what little energy I had reading rather than blogging. Seems rather appropriate!