Dream Big

                                             taken by me--2010

                                   My blog background design is of books.  Rows and rows of books.   I love it because books are important to me.  Books are tools for learning, books are the road to escape, books are friends you can pick up and visit with when you have a moment to call your own.  Someone once told me at church that she liked to read but didn't have time to indulge herself.  My reply (in my head, not out loud) was that she didn't like to read she just thought she should.  I have read with a book in one hand while rocking a fussy baby. I have propped books on my kitchen windowsill while washing dishes. I have read while the house around me imploded.  I have read when my eyes were too tired to focus because I knew that the next morning was already full of duties to fulfil and if I didn't finish that chapter I would die of curiosity.  I carry a book in my purse always--you never know when you have to wait in line at a garage or wait for your husband to find a certain screwdriver at Ace hardware.

I try to be diverse in what I read--and careful what I put into my head.  Once in, it's impossible to get it out.  That was something my mother told me years ago.  It's been a good guide to go by.  I love a good romance.  I love biographys.  I love history.  Especially history--it's so thrilling to hear the other side of the story.  History is usually written by the winners, the survivors of whatever conflict is going on. I love having someone tell the story from the other point of view.  How anyone could be bored by that has always been beyond my ken.  I love to read the historical markers on the roadways.  Robert is very patient about that and has learned to pull over without making a fuss. I love coffee table books, they are very direct and have beautiful pictures.  I love poetry-- I love the music in it and the way it is succinct and yet full of thought.

I have several grandchildren that love to read ---I hope they learn to read wisely and with passion for the craft.  Here are SOME of my favorite books for their future reference--if they ever ask. Along with my best wishes for a lifetime of good reading--of good books.

Wuthering Heights

To Kill a Mockingbird

The Bronze Bow

Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Polly- an Old-Fashioned Girl
all by Louisa May Alcott  and yes, even now, at my age!

The Witch of Blackbird Pond

A Team of Rivals

Killer Angels

Christy, by Catherine Marshall

anything by Louis L'Amour--don't laugh, they are terrific! Ask Maurine--she loved 'em too!

The Robe

Poems by Carol Lynn Pearson

Life's Little Instruction Book

The Scriptures--though I have no talent for remembering chapters and verses

The Foxfire Books

Pride and Prejudice

The Help

Borrowed Black

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Bambi--the book, not the movie, by Felix Salten''

Mrs. Mike--The Story of Katherine Mary Flannigan