The Trouble With Books..

is..
that there are just way too many of them to ever read in a single life time!!
 They are soooo easy to collect and accumulate these days.
I wonder how many books there are in the world right now?
It seems to me that there was once a time when books were a whole lot more precious & valued & well read. Chances were that you might have read the books you owned, over & over again & known all the stories ever so well & kept them for ever.
When our Anna was little she was so sweet...

and she LOVED books long before she could read.

Now days she can read at the speed of light & has surrounded herself wall to wall with more books.

We are so spoilt in our overfed & overstimulated comfortable culture..have you noticed how many truly beautiful books there are out there? And there are more & more published every day all around the world.
Have you ever imagined what your life would be like if you couldn't read!?
I think it would be as awful as not being able to see.
There is a man called Maruge that I want to tell you about very soon.
 He learnt to read when he was 84!

I wonder what your favourite book from childhood is?
When I was 7 I got chickenpox & my Aunty Margaret came & looked after me. During that week she read me Enid Blyton's The Magic Faraway Tree. These are the characters I remember.

open source wikipedia

No wonder I loved these stories...there was a Land of Enchantment, a Land of Tea parties & A Dame Slap that has a school for bad pixies & fairies!
Somehow or other I didn't manage to catch up with the Wind & the Willows as a child & although I am very familiar now with the delightful characters, I have never actually read the story through.
So yesterday I sat on the front step, in the sun & began a new Willows journey. So far, I am entirely delighted! I rather like Mole's notion of Spring without the cleaning.

If there was just one book that you could keep forever what would it be?

I read myself The Velveteen Rabbit for the very first time only a year or two ago..the nursery toys come to life much like the books

 in the extremely clever little vimeo below that I came across via Sophie at Her Library Adventures

Someone evidently ignored the above instructions in the early life of this particular book!

via pinterest

I have the most marvelous friend named Audrey. She is in her mid-eighties & lives across the road. I her see her each week when she comes over to buy fruit. As I carry things home for her, we have the most entertaining conversations. Audrey is highly knowledgable about almost everything. Her mind is sharp & her appetite for knowledge voracious. She is still studying & lives her life surrounded by books. Books have shaped her life in delightful ways. She has about as many books as this: 

via pinterest

although, hers are much tidier!

This sign just makes me smile & smile...& badly want to visit this shop.

via pinterest

If you've never read The Velveteen Rabbit you can read it here..it won't take very long.

"Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn't mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter."

courtesy Anchor Bay Entertainment

I hope you find the time to read this week...for the share joy & pleasure of it & because you can!

MUCH 

 ♥♥♥♥♥