Books and me...


   Books and I have had a very long and happy relationship, ever since I discovered the written word, I have been in love, much to the dismay and concern of my mother, who has always lamented that I will never learn anything useful as long as I (and I quote) "have my nose in a book". I have learned to prioritize, but I still love to read, only now I read when my work is done, (sometimes tho I still take that book in hand when I have more pressing work, but that guilty little feeling is there...) 


   I remember sitting in my desk at school, sneaking peeks in the book I was reading at present, sometimes even putting it in my lap and pretending to do my school work and actually deceiving (or so I thought) my teacher by glancing into my lap, while pretending to do my math, but after being "caught" a couple of times, I saved my reading for recess, where instead of going out to play with the other girls and boys, I stayed inside reading, until I was chased outside to "get some fresh air" where I took my book and headed for the trees just out behind the school and settled in the tall grass, usually right next to the other bookworm in school, Debbie.


   I grew up on Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, still have some of the old books, :-) I always thought if I ever grew up and got married if I had a little girl I would call her Nancy, I grew up, but as I am still not married, I guess Nancy will remain a memory. :-) But I solved many a mystery with her! 

   One of my favorite books is "The King's Daughter" by Suzanne Martel, To quote someone else: "This is the best pioneer book I have ever read," and it really is, or one of them. It is a story about a young orphaned girl in France who was sent to Canada to marry a widower with two children, whose first wife was scalped and killed by Indians. It is a book that makes me laugh and cry, although I laugh more than cry, the heroine is quite bold and sassy, which gets her in trouble with the nuns at home and later with her husband. She is only fifteen years old which makes her only so much more someone we can relate to...She dreams of someone she met years ago, but she takes her life in stride and deals with what fate hands out to her, the widower is supposed to marry her best friend, but on the ocean voyage from France to Canada her friend falls in love with someone else and she steps in to marry her intended husband. As women are scarce in these early years of Canada, this man doesn't care too much, he is marrying for the sake of his children who need a mother, but as the days and weeks pass, he realizes he didn't marry a weak, meek, and  timid young girl from the orphanage as he thought he was getting. Absolutely one of my favorite books! 


   Going through my bookshelf, I have all the Harry Potter books, seriously I wasn't going to read them, when they first came out, not that I had any compunction about the so called witchcraft issue, but "they were for kids!" I thought, but then a friend of mine got the first book from the library and I glanced through it and just reading the first paragraph got me interested, I read the first one in one night, then I requested the other 2 from the library, the waiting list was over 300 people! By the fourth book I was buying them as soon as they were released. I have never felt guilty about reading them, to me there is nothing as wrong as some reviews were trying to point out, Harry Potter has never claimed to be anything than a great book with great characters with personality's that we can easily relate to, there is the struggle between good and evil, and Harry has always taken the right side when he had the choice between good and evil. What really upsets me about the debate that Harry Potter books are evil and satanic is that they are not! They have never claimed to be a Christian book, but I do not at any time believe that these books will lead children to practise witchcraft or scorcery, but some of the so-called Christian books that are out there and being read by our children and adults, are more harmful to us than Harry Potter. This is taking a bit longer than I thought it would, and I really wasn't going to go into this debate, so I won't at this time. I also want to write more about my favorite books, but I will do so later, please be patient with me, I don't seem to have as much time as I thought I did to blog, but I will as I find time, please feel free to comment!