Books as Lifelong Friends: A Journey Through My Library at Payne Acres

I have always taught my daughters that books are friends.

Treat them with respect. You can learn something from every one of them, for better or for worse, even if you cut off the relationship before its time.

You can listen to them on tape and you can read them electronically, but my favorite thing is to pickup a book- a real book- hard or soft cover makes no difference, and settle into a quiet corner here at Payne Acres, inside or out. Letting the words take me out of myself, out of work, out of my body, I can be transported by the author to another time and place.

My bookshelves are full of old “friends” that I cannot pack into boxes and give away. I just need to see them there. And yes, books are stacked on coffee tables, side tables, end tables, even floors, in every room in my house.

I recently finished Kristin Hannah’s The Women, and can highly recommend that to you. If you haven’t familiarized yourself with this author’s works, do yourself a favor and get her books. I will keep recommending in this space as long as I have a breath. Reading is critical to each of us, to our growth, our intelligence, our imagination…and to our children.

I hope that devices never take the place of reading books. And I fervently hope that short form ways of expressing ourselves never crowd out the real spellings and intricacies of words and word combinations.