My mother was born in 1927, and my guess is this was taken before she was born. The tall man on the right is her father. With horses in full harness. He prefered horses to machines, he farmed with horses and mules until after World War II. He had a about 4 years of formal education, but was a reader. The few books that were in my childhood home, were mostly boxes of books that came from my grandparents home when the sold the farm the in the early 1960's. There were novels, and books of facts.
Space was limited when I was growing up, and buying and keeping books was discourage. My parents raised 4 kids in under 900 sq. ft. And books were expensive - and being farmers were parents were always careful with money. When I was in middle school my parents started spending winters in Florida, when I was in the 9th grade I discovered a bookstore near home that had a bargain and clearance section. Despite my father's protest that books were bulky and heavy, I started buying books. A habit that continues to this day.
When I finished high school the senior english teachers final lecture to the graduating class was that we would "read more as adults than we ever had." I think I laughed at that idea. He was so - so right. From connecting with high school classmates on FB, for many he was very wrong, but for some of us he was so right. I have read more books this year, than I did in four years of high school, and I am behind in my reading.
Once again in my life, living space is at a premium. I have learned to part with books I am unlikely to read again. I read a lot of Kindle books, actually I like them, I love being able to carry around a dozen books on less than 8 ounces of plastic. The building I live in has a bookcase in the lobby, some see it as a library, I see it as a book exchange. I pick up books from there that I want, I drop off books that I have read and know I am unlikely to ever reread. Most of them find a new home. I need to sort out my professional books, there are some I will never open again, some I will never part with. I should do some posts about the place we live.
I’d enjoy posts about where you live. But your vintage photos are treasures.
ReplyDeleteI will run out of 100 year old photos someday.
DeleteMuch the same for me and I gave away plenty of books to our building's library. I find paper books so cumbersome now. I much prefer eBooks.
ReplyDeleteI mix print and eBooks
DeleteBooks are about the only thing I cannot part with. I have, of course, through the years when I've moved place to place, but I kept a great many
ReplyDeleteI need to part with more
DeleteI am not impartial on the topic of books. I am still amazed and appalled when I hear of folks who grew up bereft of books or didn't have interest in reading. How can this be???
ReplyDeleteI have made up for it as an adult
DeleteI read exclusively Kindle books these days because I can't see the print in "real" books anymore to comfortably read them. But I can enlarge the font in Kindle books to read them easily! Having said that, I'm still not reading a lot of books. I start them and then lose interest. Even my online fanfiction reading has fallen off.
ReplyDeleteI think books are using smaller print
DeleteWhen I moved from my house to a much smaller apartment, I had to get rid of a LOT of books. I called an organization called VNSA (Visiting Nurses Service Auxiliary). They have a huge book sale once a year. These days, I've found a drop box for the same organization and I occasionally drop books there. Like you, I give away just the ones I know I won't read again.
ReplyDeleteWe gave thousands of books to the library charity shop when we sold the other house
DeleteMy passion for comic books rivals yours for books. I am lucky enough to live in a house that can house all 68 boxes, but I worry about the day I may have to move to a smaller space. What then? EGADS!
ReplyDeleteSassybear
https://idleeyesandadormy.com/
I have largely moved to read and release. Kind of like catch and release.
Delete