BOOKS  -  I LOVE THEM

The latest Reader's Digest related an interesting  story from a lady who got her college equivalency education from a booklist.

A teacher (Mrs. Clark) realized that a certain student would not be able to attend college, so she developed a list of books that she thought would give the student a better knowledge of life than she might ever have gained through college lectures.

The list contained the titles of 153 suggested books, starting with Bullfinch's Mythology and ending with The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.  The student was able to read them all throughout a long life.

I have always thought of myself as "well-read" but I am ashamed to say that I have only read 49 of the recommended books.

My book reading experience came about when I entered the small library at New Bedford's First Baptist Church.  Before then, my reading diet consisted mainly of comic books, or as we called them "Funny Books." 

I picked up a copy of one of Frank Baum's OZ stories and I was hooked.  I never looked at another comic book again.  The printed words in bound books allowed you to think and form pictures in your brain.

After I exhausted all of the OZ books, I attacked all of the Hardy Boys detective stories. My lunch recess from school was time when I would devour  books rather than devour my lunch.

The only book I remember from my Grammar School education was "The History of New Bedford, Massachusetts."

My family had an "itsy bitsy" library.  There were a couple of books about "Female Trouble" (written by men, of course.)  I didn't dig into those books because the pictures made me nauseous.

There was a book of Emerson's Essays.  I read them, but I think I was too young to appreciate them.

There was one book that I enjoyed and read a few times.  It was called "The Progress of Julius" by Daphne Du Maurier. Now it is known simply as "Julius."  Julius Levy is a nasty scoundrel who kills his cat as a boy and later his own daughter, because if he can't keep the "things" he loves, nobody else can have them. 

This seems to me now to be an antisemitic novel, but I didn't realize it when I was a child.

In High School I made a point of not reading my book assignments.  Instead, I would read books like "1984" and "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, "Brave New World" by Aldus Huxley. everything by Mark Twain, "To Kill a Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee, and (of course) "Moby Dick" by Herman Melville.

One strangely exciting book made a great impression on me and triggered a love for the exotic "She" by H. Rider Haggard. 

In Germany, I wasted hours and hours reading the 10-volume novel "Jean-Christophe" by Romain Rolland in English.  I think it numbed my brain because I can't recall even one word of the text.

I know, once again - TMI.

......................................................................