B is for Books and Blogfest

First of all I must thank everyone who commented yesterday and who decided to follow my blog. I am truly honored and humbled.

Now on to the next letter!

BOOK comes to us from the Old English boc and is akin to the Old High German bouh. The Old English boc means "beech," probably from the early Germanic practice of carving runic characters onto beechwood tablets. Cool.

This is my bookshelf. On it/in it, is a 1912 set of Junior Classics, The Enchanted World Time-Life Books series, a 1917 edition of Grimm Brother's fairy tales called Little Brother and Little Sister. It is illustrated by Arthur Rackham. You can also find other books about fairies, gnomes and magical creatures, along side Oscar Wilde and The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara Walker. There's the Tibetan Book of the Dead and The Golden Bough, Winnie-the-Pooh, The Cat in the Hat, and The Neverending Story. Here also is my small collection of books about the Virgin Islands, Leaves of Grass, The Hive and the Honey Bee, Chronology of the Ancient World and so many more.

Many of these books I inherited or were given to me. Many I've had since childhood. All of them say something about me. They tell you not only what I'm interested in, but what I like to read and what I value. They give you some idea of who I am. They are clues to my personality.

Cicero said, A room without books is like a body without a soul.

I couldn't agree more. I have been in homes that are barren of books. Homes like that make me uneasy.

I come away feeling odd, out of sorts, realizing I know very little about the people who inhabit that space. I come away thinking either they are hiding themselves or that they are ignorant, incurious, or worse, don't care.

B is for books. Oxygen filled blood for the brain.

What do your books say about you as a person, a writer, a reader?

B is also for blogfest as in Vicki Rocho's Memory Lane Blogfest over at Rambles and Randomness. She is celebrating one year of blogging and has asked us to answer these questions.

1. When did you start your blog? October 29, 2007
2. What is first denomination (price) of postage stamp you remember? Three and four cents
3. How old were you when you learned to ride a bike? I was eight. My sister taught me.
4. What was the 1st concert you attended without parental supervision? I was like 23 when I went to my first concert and saw Seals and Crofts!
5. How old were you when you got your first kiss? Oh gosh, I was 14 and it is one of my most embarrassing moments….would be excellent fodder for a scene in a novel.
6. What is your earliest memory? Watching a news clip of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. I was just shy of three years old.