Where Bloggers Live: My Favorite Books
Welcome to the monthly edition of Where Bloggers Live. It’s kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…Bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes? Every month a group of six bloggers share their work-spaces, homes, towns, and more!
This month’s theme is “Favorite Books.”
There’s a Japanese term I love (of course there is): Tsundoko: the art of buying books and never reading them.
“The word “doku” can be used as a verb to mean “reading,” and the “tsun” in “tsundoku” originates in “tsumu” – a word meaning “to pile up”. So when put together, “tsundoku” has the meaning of buying reading material and piling it up.”
Not that I would know anything about that.
I just love BOOKS. The physical objects. So, there are books I love for reading…and there are books I just love for the objects they are. As much as I love reading, I don’t mind having books around that I will never read.
One of the things I most miss about my house was having room for So Many Books. I love being surrounded by books.
Today I’m going to share some old favorites – both fiction and non-fiction, some new favorites (within the past 10 years), an emotional favorite, and a favorite physical book.
FAVORITES
Fiction
As a Child
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Oh my. This was probably the first heartbreaking book I ever read as a child. This and Skyrocket: The Story of a Little Bay Horse by Margaret Cabell Self, which, to me, was far superior to Black Beauty, but comparable in that the little horse changed hands so many times – ending up sometimes in cruel situations and sometimes good. It would certainly be in my Top Five Childhood Books (along with Harriet the Spy and The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler but I’m trying to keep this post down to a dull roar). ANYWAY, this was a story about a little rich girl whose father left her in the care of a woman at a boarding house for children (? that detail is now fuzzy to me), who ended up being cruel and neglectful and selfish and the “little princess” suffered terribly and missed her father. She finally made some interesting friends and in the end she was reunited with her father but it was a real tearjerker.
A Fuzzy Pet
Ha ha. Obviously a very early book of mine (artwork contained within by me). I LOVED petting the actual fuzzy pets and I so longed for that chestnut pony…OR the puppy in the box. Most of the fuzziness is worn away at this point, but I still love seeing the book on my shelf and remembering the feeling of longing for a pet.
As an Adult
I’m just going to link to these Top 5, I don’t want to torment you all by writing a paragraph about each one. Bottom line: Recommended. All very moving, very emotional stories. Cuz I like feelings.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
Flowers by Algernon by Daniel Keyes – I loved this when I read it in high school and I read it again recently and it holds up.
Non-Fiction
As a Child
Light Horsekeeping by Helen Mather
This book was my bible as a pre-teen/teen. It was done sort of documentary/journalistic style, loosely following the stories of several girls who wanted horses. So there was no main character and you got to see how different families dealt with their daughter’s plaintive cries to please PLEASE have a horse. It spoke sort of high level about all the responsibility, what you’d have to give up, etc…but no girl backed down from it. In the end, some girls did get horses and I cheered for them.
The photography was sort of unique for the time – all black and white, interesting crops. Elements of photography that I didn’t recognize as “elements” at the time, I just knew they were different and I liked them.
I can still pick it up and practically recite word for word what text goes with what picture…and feel the feelings I felt back then when I. too, was dying for a horse.
As an Adult
Here we enter the realm of gardening and decorating books. I’ve had and enjoyed so many. They’re mostly just picture books with large, glossy colored pages. Some favorites are:
Plant Marriages: What Plants Look Good Together – How to Choose the Perfect Plant Combinations for Your Garden by Jeff Cox. This was a great education in color combining, which I’m sure has helped me in the present with putting clothing outfits together.
Tabletops: Easy, Practical, Beautiful Ways to Decorate the Table by Barbara Milo Ohrbach
Mary Emmerling’s American Country Cottages by Mary Emmerling
American Junk by Mary Randolph Carter
Shabby Chic by Rachel Ashwell – really, all her books are lovely, but this was the original one
EMOTIONAL FAVORITE
Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer & Marion Rombauer Becker. My old beat-up, falling apart copy. That my father gave me as a wedding gift for my first marriage when I was 12. Kidding. I was 20. Same thing. I’ll just keep taping it back together. And really the ONLY thing I use it for is the crepe (I think the book calls them “French pancakes”) recipe that I use for Fancy Holiday Breakfasts. But I’ll never let it go.
FAVORITE BOOK FOR AESTHETIC REASONS
The Clans & Tartans of Scotland by Robert Bain. COME ON. How cute is this book? Do I have ANY interest in the clans and tartans of Scotland?? NO. But the red plaid cover, the color plates inside, the 1948 inscription “To Mom with love,” all make it one of my favorite books to just have around.
BOOK I WISH I STILL HAD
I THINK it was called “Modern Japanese” and it was a book that always lived on the bookcase behind my father’s desk in our basement. I guess he brought it back from their time in Japan in the 50s. My mother brought back a houseful of furniture. My father brought back a book. Seems about right.
It was all in Japanese on that lovely transparent rice (?) paper, so, while a thick book, it felt very delicate. The pages were doubled, like, not printed on the back, but folded…if that makes sense. Softcover, light-colored cover. I can see it in my mind’s eye and imagine how it felt in my hands as I leafed through the pages looking at the exotic characters.
BUT.
SOMEONE’S husbands sneakily “cleaned out” the basement while someone and I were out for a bit, and when we returned, like EVERYTHING was GONE. Taken to the dump, never to be seen again. SO many things disappeared that day, but that’s the one whose loss I feel the most because I loved holding and looking through that book…even though I had no idea what it said.
I’ve looked for it online…but I’m not CERTAIN of the name, and being all in Japanese, it may just not ever show up on an American resale site. I don’t even have a picture of it.
THE END
SO. That is really just the tip of the iceberg of favorite and beloved books. I could do an entire ongoing blog just on books I love for one reason or another. But I will try to spare you.
I hope you enjoyed (?) my many many words about books…and please take a look at my friends’ posts about THEIR favorite books.
Happy Reading/Tsundokoing!
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Leslie at Once Upon a Time Happily Ever After
Em at Dust and Doghair
This post contains affiliate links, which means that I may receive a small commission if you buy something as a result of clicking that link, at no extra cost to you. I appreciate you shopping through my links.
Em
Wow, I loved this! (Do I write that about all your posts, because it feels like I do?)
It has truly been so long since I read that I forgot all those feelings. But enjoying your reading journey and treasures really opened the door to feelings and forgotten memories of my own. NOW I could write this post. You’ve opened a happy floodgate of titles, forgotten loved books and my own feelings about them. But like all the books at my house, they were dusty on a shelf. So THANK YOU for the lovely share. I greatly enjoyed reading YOUR feelings and am remembering my own genuine affection for the dozens of titles swimming through my head right now! 👏🏻😘
bettyewp
Aww, I loved your comment! Do *I* always say *that*??
I’ve definitely had “reading” and “non-reading” phases of my life. So, as much as I love it, I can appreciate there being times when…it just doesn’t happen. And, whatever 🙂 Ha.
And I have a lot of dusty books, too 🙂 I just tried to stick a post-it on a book and it wouldn’t stick…cuz there was too much dust, ha ha.
xoxo
Iris
Oh my goodness – I could NEVER read (or hear) books about animals or children. Something sad/unpleasant always happens to them and it upsets me. Chuck used to say, “you just want to read about fairytales and have happy endings”. Well, duhhh!
Iris
bettyewp
It’s so interesting how we all like/hate such different things. I love reading a sad story and don’t usually have a need for a happy ending. I like to feel all the feelings – good and bad. I can understand just wanting to hear happy endings…but I don’t need them.
Daenel
Oh my word! I’d forgotten about the fuzzy books. I used to love rubbing them too.
And thank you for being honest… Sometimes I buy books for purely aesthetic reasons knowing good and well I’m not at all interested in the topic.
When I was a kid, I was a big Nancy Drew fan. Like I wanted to be her.
bettyewp
Books are beautiful! I can easily think of them as art…or even decorative accessories…not necessarily just as…tools?
jodie filogomo
How sad, that someone threw out your books. I mean, I got rid of all of mine, but at least it was my doing!!
And I love that you reread Flowers for Algernon as an adult and still liked it. I was saying I should reread Judy Blume’s book too, and maybe if you like it when you’re younger, of course you’ll still like it. Because in all reality, aren’t we the same person still???
Now there’s a thesis idea for you, LOL
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
PS…thanks for pressuring me to do the book theme. It really brought back so many memories.
bettyewp
I had a goal for awhile of re-reading ALL the books I read/was supposed to read in school…but I never totally reached that goal. Cuz I wasn’t enjoying most of them anymore than I did when I was young (I’m looking at YOU Animal Farm, 1984, and Red Badge of Courage!). I reread My Antonia by Willa Cather and actually really liked it. I’m lukewarm about Catcher in the Rye (both times). I still like To Kill a Mockingbird…but you can keep all the F. Scott Fitzgerald books, as far as I’m concerned.
As far as being the same person as when you’re younger? I don’t think that always holds. I’m certainly not the same as I was in my teens, twenties, thirties, etc. I think your perspective keeps changing as you experience more things – which happens as you get older. And this IS a giant topic, you’re right. Maybe someday we’ll have a big conversation.