".. one of the joys ..."

I have a great library in my home.

My parents instilled in us a love of reading

(at least, all my brothers and sisters love to read, so I figure it came from my parents)

To digress a little:

my teenage years were spent in "the old-old-house"

in West Chester, PA.

(we don't say "Pennsylvania, mind you, we say "pee-ay")

The old-old-house holds many fond memories.

One room (the family room) was amazing:

wood floors, wood walls with built-in bookshelves

and it even boasts an elevator to the master suite.

More about this old-old house on another post.

But that room was FILLED, I tell you, FILLED

with books.

And recliners.

So, back to the present ....

We have, in our family room, some beautiful wood bookshelves filled with books.

Many of the books are beautifiul hard-cover classics

(yup - I collect them, in case you were wondering about a gift for me)

When I was in High School I skipped reading the Classics we were assigned.

(I think I was intimidated by them ... I don't know ... I liked reading other things, just not what I was assigned to read)

So as a very young mother I decided to read them to my kids.

I think I started with Little Women, or maybe Tom Sawyer.

Right now I'm reading what is destined to become one of my favorites:

Good-bye, Mr. Chips and Other Stories

by James Hilton.

I absolutely love this book.

In one of his short stories, "Merry Christmas Mr. Chips"

is a beautiful line:

"... one of the lovely joys of growing old was to add to this list of trivial things one didn't care about, so that one had more time to care for the things that were not trivial."

One of the joys, indeed!