When I was a kid I used to ask my family members the most irritating questions. The conversations would go something like this:
"Which name do you like better - Josephine or Stephanie?"
Sigh of an exasperated older person. "I don't know. They're both nice."
"No, c'mon. Which name?"
"I don't know."
"You've gotta choose."
"Look, I don't know they're both pretty. Which name do you like better?"
"I don't know," I'd shrug to their further annoyed sighs.
So, in keeping with tradition, I have decided to ask a question for which I don't have my own answer: Hey all, what's your most prized book?
Because I'm not such a selfish little inquisitor anymore I guess I'll break tradition and hasten a guess as to what's at the top of my list.
Of course, I must say first that I don't truly know. Nonetheless, here goes...
Anything signed by the author, like my copies of Lauren Willig's The Deception of the Emerald Ring and The Masque of the Black Tulip. Any of my lovely books from childhood. My old Gone With the Wind.
I look forward to hearing your picks!
2 comments:
I have a number of children's books handed down to me by my late mother, many of them with the black and white illustrations coloured in by her. I've read them all. Most of them are books one never hears of these days and which are probably out of print, but I enjoyed them, and treasure them still. A lot of them described the world she would have known in her girlhood, such as the books of popular wartime (WW2) authors Violet M. Methley - ("Vackies" about London children evacuated to a seaside town because of the blitz, "Cocky and Co." about 2 Australian orphans sailing "home" to family in England) or Dorita Fairlie Bruce (Nancy Calls the Tune", "Dimsie Carries On", both set in wartime Scotland, with air raids, rationing and even German spies!)
Part of this is no doubt the connection with my mother, who taught me to read when I was about four (since when, I haven't stopped). They may not be "great literature" but there are many reasons why a book may be prized, after all...
Indeed, Shimona, literature doesn't have to be "great" to be worthwhile and prized. Thank you so much for sharing these titles. And if we associate a book with a beloved person, place or even event from one's life that book becomes very sweet, doesn't it?
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