Books are beautiful!

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
~ Arnold Lobel

I have many passions but books are a big one!

Long after most parents get bored with their children asking "Why?" & plumping for "Just because!" my mum was still patiently giving answers or referring to a book (& she still loves a good dictionary!).

I had (still have to a degree) what they now call 'attention deficit disorder' and found reading almost impossible & therefore narrowly missed being sent to a 'special' school!

My mum & Aunts were having non of that & found me an after school tutor who utilised my interest in nature whilst enlisting me in the local library.

BANG! Suddenly I realised behind those previously incomprehensible letters were whole worlds to explore!

I suspect that my lagging behind at school was a benefit in this respect as I came across reading suddenly as if an avalanche of literature had been released upon me!

There are a few of my favourites in my blip including the (bizarrely) non fiction 'Phone calls from the dead' which is just as it's title suggests!

So what's your favourite book?

Here are a few of my favourite quotes about the value of books by people much more eloquent than myself:

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it. ~ James Bryce

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~ Anna

Lord! when you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book. ~ Christopher Morley

The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television. ~ Andrew Ross

If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe? The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions. ~ Author Unknown

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

When you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than was there before. ~ Clifton Fadiman

The wise man reads both books and life itself. ~ Lin Yutang

There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book; books are well written or badly written. ~ Oscar Wilde

Before you go take a look at yearofhappys excellent flag blip for today (Great colours!) & a great idea for a fun day out in Bradford on Saturday afternoon!