September 2 - Reading Material

I do love books.  Well, that shouldn't be much of a surprise.  I'm a librarian, after all.  And, I'll admit it, it's physical books I love. 

I have little interest in e-books.  Oh, I can see how their portability has advantages, but I can throw a paperback in my purse and go and that's enough for me.  I like the look of ink on paper and the weight and feel of a physical book.  There's no maintenance  required; I don’t have to turn it on, charge it up, or update the software. I just pick it up and read it . Then there's the expense of an e-reader.  Because it's pricey, I'd  worry about how I stored it and where I kept it and about losing it or dropping it. Not so with a physical book.

When our sons were small, John and I bought three used eight-shelf wooden bookshelves from a university book store as they were "upgrading" to metal shelves. Th photo above shows two of the shelves with a few of the many vintage children's books I've bought throughout the years.  A second bookshelf  is in our bedroom and holds a portion of the knitting and quilting books I've collected.  The third one is in John's office and holds his collection of vintage vinyl records.

I'm not even going to talk about all the books in smaller bookshelves in the spare room and in the sewing room or the books stacked on tables and desks and chairs throughout the house or the boxes and boxes of books stored in the shop.  In fact, I get many of the books I read now from the library.  This is a very good thing as I often read ten or more books a month and when I get them from the library I don't have to buy them or figure out how to store them or sell them.  I just have to remember to return by their due dates.

As far as magazines go, I only read a few knitting and quilting magazines I get from the library. Sometimes John finds used Smithsonian and Popular Mechanics and I might glance through those.  I read a lot on the Internet--e-mail, blogs, skimming through news sites, and yes, Facebook and Twitter, but if I'm not careful I could spend all day on that so I try to limit it.

There are many kinds of reading material  and ways to read and I'm grateful for them all, even those I don't use.  I'm also grateful I have good eyesight and the intelligence to comprehend and analyze what I do read.