♥ I heart books

I found a fantastic quote by C.S. Lewis (fitting, since he's my favorite author) that goes like this:

"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me”

This quote reminds me of my youthful, summer days, lazing in the shade cast by our peaked roof, partially listening to a far off lawn mower, slapping at bugs... loving imagination. Nothing has changed. My love for books is an unquenchable thirst. I am a book scavenger- I'll take left over books, ragged and beaten; I'll take hard-bound shiny and new, first edition or fourteenth edition; I'll read one book just once or a thousand times. I'll lend one, buy one, borrow one, rescue one.

It's a funny thing that happens to me when I am submersed in someone else's gift of tale-telling: the story becomes alive. Not in the sense of the mind's eye, but... I actually begin to hear and see it everywhere. A dog will bark at the exact moment one does in the story; a child will cry in perfect timing with the character's own; I begin to pick up on smells and sounds that I had not heard before reading about them. I could chalk it up to an over-active imagination, but I'd rather keep the magic and call it story-stalking. *smile*

Libraries are quasi-sacred, to me. By stepping through its doors and choosing to peruse the pages of different font, of different words, you are honoring each author's inner most feelings and quest of their dreams. After all, there would be no books without readers. Taking the time to indulge and decipher a plot, I know, is so rewarding for those who wrote it.

The smell of a book, in itself, I could fill my house with, every day. It's a smell that doesn't take on a scent, it takes on a character: old, wise, cherished, dignified. I don't smell the pages of a book to smell the book, I flip the pages mere inches from my face to get a feel for it- for where it has been. A book that has been read a thousand times, carries a thousand smells. A new one carries only the smell of the factory. Needless to say, I adore used books.

Have you ever purchased a new Bible (or book with very thin pages) and listened to each leaflet crackle as it is pulled away from it's neighbor for the first time? Try it, it's like the crackling leaves in the beginning of fall.

A few of my most favorite novels:

The Oath, Frank Peretti

The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis

The Circle Trilogy, Ted Dekker

Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carrol

Harry Potter (every.single.book), J.K. Rowling

Running with the Demon, Terry Brooks

The Princess Bride, William Goldman

Quick, share your favorites so I can buy more books and more shelves and more books! ♥