on loving books

My mothers basement resembles a library. My father had an obsession with books and could not enter a second book store without reading something. In addition, he had a varied taste. If I go look at the books I can see the sections of modern writing, english classics, philosophy, various sciences, math, greek classics (some in ancient greek, as he was taking classes to learn it late in his life), ...

I inherited his love of books, though not to his extent. Looking through his books is daunting when I think about reading them all.

Walt
 
QuarkChild and bug_girl:thanks for seconding
and "thirding" the recommendation of Fadiman's
Ex Libris .As I mentioned it was actually
a re-recommendation,I suggested it in a previous
Luciana thread and she completely blew me off,so
we have to keep "bugging" her about it.(I'm
starting to suspect she read and hated it and is too
nice to say so).
Fadiman writes about many of the things brought
up in this thread-how we treat books,the lure of the
used bookstore,how having kids affected her bibliophlia,
storing books-etc.
And she writes not just wittily,not just prettily-
beautifully -and comes across as someone you'd like
to know.In short she is in many ways a slightly older,
somewhat paler version of lnery!
Now o-fishully re-re-recommended!
Boas Festas
7th
 
7th: no, I didn't read Ex libris yet, though it's already in my Amazon.com wish list (been a customer since 1997, one of the first Brazilian customers, btw. I think that means something by itself. :D)

In short she is in many ways a slightly older, somewhat paler version of lnery!
Click to expand...

:D
 
btw, 7th, I found this at the Amazon description of Ex libris:
As someone who played at blocks with her father's twenty-two-volume set of Trollope ("My Ancestral Castles")
Click to expand...

One more thing we have in common. As a kid, I didn't like dolls very much. But I liked building homes for my not-so-important dolls. So the outer walls of my houses were the 12 volumes of an encyclopedia, which of course I had already read in its entirety. I loved the pictures, and they had so many interesting info! Only after placing them on its side, I'd start the decoration. Have you noticed how pocket dictionaries make wonderful doll beds? For pictures and portraits I'd cut pictures from my favorite cartoon characters.

My parents never cared if I played with my books, even it that meant all kinds of destruction. I didn't know them, but I do now - that's excellent. To earn intimacy with books, a child should be able to draw in it, carry around, make it as much a part of life as possible. Books should be fun. If a book is something to be treated with reverence, a child will never learn to really enjoy it.
 
When I was a kid - in the 80´s - I was also an avid "book-painter".

There a comic pocket book series with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck stories which I still collect - the German title is "Walt Disney´s Lustige Taschenbücher" - "Walt Disney´s hilarious pocket books" (btw do these exists in other languages, too?). Back then, the books were printed alternating: two pages colored, two pages black and white. Of course, this was an invitation for my brother and me to color them.
 
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