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Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The "Story" of My Life

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I have a very deep love affair with books!


Hardback books, softback books, ebooks, audio books, old books, new books - you name the type, and I love them!!!  I love the feel, smell, shape and, most of all, the promise of books!  (I especially love the hardback books by Knopf with the raggedy edges - I've been known to buy those even when the story was iffy LOL! :*)


I love to display my books along with favorite knick-knacks on book shelves :*)
And as you're about to see, I have quite a few books - some read and beloved and sitting proudly on one of my NINE bookcases, many others just sitting around in piles waiting for me to decide if they are keepers or not .....

Stacked near my morning "quiet-time" chair



Hiding in boxes in closets



Lurking behind closed cabinet doors


I pick them up at yard sales, clearance sales, Goodwill, hand-me-downs from others, etc.  It's real hard for me to say no to a book, especially a book on sale :)  Cleaning up these piles is one of my SIMPLIFY objectives this year, so it's only natural that I decided to join Sarah Did It's Bibliophile Files linky party each month :)  Sarah challenged us to choose our own challenge, which was great because I knew exactly what I needed to do.  My plan is to go through these piles and choose at least 10 books each month to read through enough that I can decide whether it is a keeper or not, and then either put it on a shelf or dispose of it.  Hopefully there will be no more piles of "To Be Read" books by the end of the year!

Note - long story coming up!!!
Books have always been a part of the major times in my life.  And I thought it might be fun to occasionally share some of the stories of my life as I link up each month.  So if you'd like to hear a personal story, I'm about to share one from my childhood.  If not, however, this is your cue to drop to the bottom, leave a sweet comment to let me know you visited and go on your merry way - I promise I won't be offended! =^..^=

I am told I have always loved books, and indeed some of my favorite memories are of the books I loved as a child....




My first memory of a special book was Maybelle the Goat (which may or may not be correct since I haven't been able to find one anywhere since).  I was six years old and had just been plucked from the city of Baltimore and plopped down in the wilds of a farm in North Carolina.  A new stepdaddy, a new baby half-brother, and a half-sister on the way.  A strange new world to live in indeed, and my young life had changed BIG TIME!

There were two old country houses on the farm, a tiny, white two-room box for us - so small they had to build a bathroom on, and a much older, huge ramshackle red one for my stepfather's parents.  They were old country farming people, hairless (not her - she had a lovely bun!) and toothless, and they smelled funny - totally foreign to this little city girl, and even a little scary!  Grandpa had a big knot on his bald forehead and steely blue eyes that cut right through me. Grandma seemed nice enough, but she cooked strange food I had never heard of before, and she even chewed and spit "tobacky" as she called it :)  She was nothing like my beloved Granny I had left behind in Baltimore!!!

The "new" homeplace was also nothing like what I was used to!  Huge, wonderful pecan trees lining the long, dirt drive - perfect for climbing and sitting in with a good book once I figured out how to get past the trunk - and I can still remember the joy of picking the nuts up off the ground, cracking those hard shells which stained my fingers, and eating the delicious meats inside....a dark, scary-looking woods in back with swamps abounding and the threat of snakes.....even darker, scarier, smelly buildings that housed huge creatures called cows that my mother was expected to procure our milk from each morning, and the new smells of hay and corn and dung... riding the big yellow bus to and from school each day for what seemed like hours..... and everywhere the white cotton fields and wide open spaces of the countryside .... culture shock for sure!  I remember feeling lonely and lost, without a friend in the world.

But not for long..... I had noticed a calico cat around the farm and called to it several times, but it was too wary of me and wouldn't come near no matter how hard I tried.  But then one day, I was sitting on the back steps of our little house, reading from the aforementioned Maybelle book from my school library, totally unaware that she had come near.  Suddenly, lo and behold that little cat just walked right up to me and began purring and rubbing up against me!  So began my life-long love affair with cats!!!  Of course I named her Maybelle!

From that day on, Maybelle was my best friend, all through my childhood.  Every day when I came home from school, the first thing I did was go outside and call for Maybelle, and she always came running.  I was horrified when I came home one day to find that her beautiful long tail had become a 3-inch bloody stump!  Come to find out, my stepfather's father had chopped her tail off because he said it would make her catch more mice!  Yes, seems my instincts were right and there was a reason I was scared of him!  I suppose I should just be grateful he didn't chop off her head, right?  Years later I learned that he had "disposed" of each litter of kittens when they were found.  I'm glad I didn't know that as a child.

Tail or no tail, Maybelle lived for many years and made my childhood a happier one.  I think of her often with such fond memories :)  She was the first of many wonderful long-lasting relationships I have had with some special cats, and many are the cats that have graced my lap during long, lovely reading sessions!  I look forward to spending quite a while visiting some of my little friends on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge when I finally go to Heaven :*)

At the next linky party I'll share the 10 books I reviewed this month, whether or not I kept them, and why. And if I've read a good book that month, I'll be sure to share a short review with you too!

 Hope you'll come along for the journey!!!

Hugs & Blessings
Teresa
=^..^=


26 comments:

  1. Hi Teresa - I love the title of your post and your story - will you name the monthly posts the same? I think you should as it was a lovely (but scary) story. I wish I still had one of my childhood books - something blue willow. The books I do still have are the ones where you sent off to have a book made with your and your friends' names. I think I have 5 or 6 of them. And from my teen years, the books where you got to choose which direction the story took and flip to a certain page to continue the story.

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  2. My favorite book as a child was "Randolph the Bear Who Said 'No'." At least, that's how I remember it. Randolph was being recalcitrant and so a fairy (or wizard, or something) cast a spell so that all Randolph cold say was "no." When asked if he wanted a treat, of course all he could say was "no." I don't remember how the spell was removed. And I could have dreamed the whole thing....

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  3. This was such a wonderful post to read! It must have been very scary with such a big change as a 6 year old. I have always loved books too and have put my kids along that path as well - bringing them to storytime at the library from 6 weeks old! I'll have to check into the Nicola Bayley books at the library for the kids.

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  4. I have 9 bookcases, too--and piles still waiting for new shelves. I see so many of my favorite authors on your shelves--Jan Karon, James Herriot, C.S. Lewis--and, oh, I see Watership Down--really, you've read that? I didn't know anyone outside my family had read it. : )
    What a traumatic experience from your youth. It appears you have made a happy life now! And I can understand your strong attachment to cats! What a comfort Maybelle must have been!

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  5. There's the start of your own book. I loved reading it.

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  6. Oh my dear .... that was a shock to a city girl!

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  7. I spy my favorite author on your shelf... Barbara Kingsolver! ENjoy your reading adventures!

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  8. What a fabulous post! I loved this! I so can relate!!! I will so look forward to your Bibliophile Files posts!!!! Love ya'!! :)

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  9. Ps ... did you see that the next Jane Karon book is coming out soon?!!?!?! :)

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  10. We have at least as many bookcases, but ours are all double stacked, and that doesn't include books stacked under the guest bed, in boxes in the basement.....get the idea? Oh yea, I found a Maybelle the Goat, 2 more books about a cockroach, a rabbit named the same. You just might have to dig a bit harder.

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  11. Fun post, Teresa! We're big on books here, too, although DH calls piles (mine) like yours "earthquake detectors". The first book I remember as my very own was Misty of Chincoteague, but I do have a very, very old copy of Horton Hatches the Egg. Bet your kids are readers, too; ours are.

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  12. What a wonderful and intriguing story! Sounds as though you could publish your own book? And this is just the first chapter!

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  13. Great story. When I was a kid I had a life very similar, and books were my escape.

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  14. Books are wonderful and you can't get bored in lift because their is always a good book.. I love my book shelf and I have brought books many years ago to read when I am retired. I am retired now and still haven't gotten to them. I belong to 2 books clubs and I go tot he library at lease 3x a week. I love the looks of the book, the smell,the cover and paper of the books. I remember the book Dr. Doolittle when I was younger. My favorite book is "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".

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  15. Oh my, I haven't thought of that in years - Twix, Twelve and Twenty by Pat Boone was my first book. I love reading everynight right before "lights out." We recently downsized and cleaned out all the bookcases. I found our local, small town library has a fund-raising book sale every Spring and we now read all the books we want and then donate them to the library in pretty much new condition. It helps them and us. Love your story from Judy C in NC

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  16. I found a link to a story called "Maybelle the Donkey" on WorldCat (www.worldcat.org) It appears to be part of a set of supplementary books for elementary school curriculum, published by Ginn & Co. (textbook publishers) in 1951. Would that date be about right? You said you read the story in your school library, so a supplementary reader would be logical. The WorldCat entry shows what libraries own it. You can use Interlibrary Loan to request it. It is probably out of copyright, and anyway making one copy is "fair use," so you could photocopy it.

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  17. Also, Loganberry Books has a helpful feature called Stump the Bookseller.

    http://w1.loganberrybooks.com/stumpthebookseller/

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  18. I had to laugh when I saw your stack by your quiet time chair. I have a similar stack. Every day that begins with a book is a good day!

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  19. Teresa I love books too and worked at the local library for years. I am a huge fan of libraries because they can store all those books and I can borrow them when I want to. Plus I borrow dvd's, cd's, etc as well. That way my little house doesn't come apart at the seams, lol!!! I would have no room for fabric ans sewing stuff if I housed books too.

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  20. That was wonderful - thank you for sharing such a personal glimpse! I have also been a life-long book lover, although I'm not sure I can remember any of my earliest books. I do remember being thrilled when my kindergarten teacher singled out several students to be awarded library cards - and I was one of the recipients! I started checking out books from the library (it was a very small local library) at a tender age!

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  21. Teresa I loved our Maybelle story! And like you I love books. When we moved into this house I had to get rid of scads of books. We were determined to "downsize" and simplify and books were part of that. I have a Kindle and I use the Kindle app on my Ipad and have a couple thousand books in my account - there are lots of free ones out there. :) But I still have books at home and quite a few of them. There are some books that I just want to touch and make notes in and underline sections of. And there are many I've yet to read that lie on the shelves patiently waiting. It's hard for me to choose between reading and quilting - I love both so much! blessings, marlene

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  22. What a sweet share, Theresa, you should be a writer, yourself!
    :-}pokey

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  23. We had a cat named Susie and my dad got rid of her kittens too. I didn't know it at the time and as an adult, can't believe my dad did that! Love books too.

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  24. I was an avid book reader as a child. When other kids were outside playing, I was inside reading. I wish I could remember the first book I read ... but I think it's a combination of my rememberer not working very well these days and that I read so much from an early age. I don't read so much these days ... I'd rather quilt! ;-)

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  25. Where do you store your fabrics???

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  26. We must be kindred spirits (I am sure you know what series that is from)I also love books and cats. I loved reading your childhood story but it is sad about the cats. Good luck with paring down your books, I have had to do that and it can be hard.

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