Old Books And My Reading List...

Brynwood Needleworks - Old Copy of "Birds of America"

I love books. I love old books. I love new books. I love the heft, the feel, and even the smell of books. IPads and readers just don't compare...although my arthritic thumbs prefer them.

I hate to admit it but I have hundreds of books, and they're mostly still in boxes from our move. Why, you might ask? In Florida, we had special built-in units made to house all our books. All we had to do at any given time as walk into the "library", select one, and sit down to read. So far, we have neither the space, nor the shelving to house those favored tomes. So, for now, they sit - safe and dry - in sealed boxes in our basement.

Brynwood Needleworks - "Birds of America" Bluebird and Robin Illustrations

I have a master list of every single box we packed, journaling the contents, so that I'd know the exact box I'd need to go into to find something I needed. I was pretty general when it came to the books, so although I distinguished between "cookbooks" and "history books", I was a little fast and loose with my "fiction" categories. Wouldn't you know it, that's the category that encompassed the book I was looking for yesterday.

While I was looking for that one book, I decided to look through other boxes that were completely off topic. Joyfully, I found a few that I want to read (or re-read), and a few I just wanted to have handy. This was one of those books.

It's an old copy, and it had that old book smell when I first ordered it off Ebay years ago. The pages are in pretty good shape, although the paper slip cover has seen better days. I tucked it under my arm with the other selections and brought it upstairs. The first color plate I saw when I opened the cover was of our Wisconsin robin, and the eastern bluebird which lives on our farm every spring and summer. Serendipity, you might say!

Brynwood Needleworks - "Birds of America" Finch Illustrations

 

Here's another pretty page, just for you to see how wonderful the illustrations really are. I'm sure I'll go back to this book frequently, to see if I can find images of all the birds that frequent Hickory Hill Farm.

 

I'm also going to make a point of reading more this year. I love to read, and have since I was a child. But with all the things that have occupied my time since moving back to Wisconsin, reading has fallen by the wayside. That's going to change in 2020. 

 

I'm going to decide which book to read first. I'll post a new widget in my sidebar to show you what I'm currently reading, and then I'll keep a list of all the books I CoMpLeTe this year. Some will be childhood favorites that I haven't read in...ahem...decades, while others will be new on my list.

I think I'll start with an old favorite - reading the actual book I had as a kid. Two of them that immediately come to mind are a lovely copy of "Black Beauty", and another of "Wind in the Willows". I also have a copy of "Watership Down" that I love. Hmmmm. Where to begin? Watch my sidebar for the first book on my list.