It's a constant management problem to balance our need for books with the weight and space they occupy in our constant moves.
We
have whittled them down to about 2,000 of the ones we desperately need or can't part with.We only have a couple of valuable books (because they're old)
Did you know that I gave up "The Hobbit" with the illustrations from the Rankin Bass movie which now sells for $100 on ebay?
I once had the original vinyl record "Dark side of the Moon" and the Doors "13"
But that was in the old days.
Anyway, we have books in Spanish (a little of everything)
French (Mostly Asterix and Tintin) and
Navajo (mostly from Kris' mission)
There are no books we haven't read or used for reference in this collection.
Jill learned about the world from Asterix. ("this hair cut looks like Cleopatra" she said in kindergarten)
Katie learned to read from "The Reptile Room" (Lemony Snickett) in grade 2
Brian attatched motors to Lego Blocks with instruction books.
Mark read Raptor Red and Jurassic Park one summer.
Valerie plows through the classics like "Wuthering Heights" for goodness sake
Michael has memorized "Calvin and Hobbes"
Amy loves Photography books
Kris was not a reader when I met him, did you know that?
It's true. He had to read for school, but he never read just for fun.
I coaxed him to read "Fareinheit 451" in 1980, so we could talk about the book.
He always had so much he HAD to read that there wasn't time for extras.
You should see him tearing through thick books now. "Collapse" "Guns, Germs and Metal" "The Silent War"
"El Trapecista" (Araujo) "Mi Fuga" (Jhon Pinchao) "So Far from God" (about the war with Mexico, thanks Mark) "Dumb Money" "Fiasco" now considered required reading for the modern military.
As you know I always read a lot, a little of everything. I remember cooking dinner with one hand and reading Solsenitzyn with the other. I read "Love in Time of Cholera" "Narnia" "The Lord of the Rings" and current stuff of that kind
I read E.B. White (of "Stewart Little" Did you know that's the same White as in Strunk and White?) "Maxed Out" and "Nickled and Dimed" and a lot of Agatha Christie" also abridged versions of "El Cid" and "Tirante el Blanco" and especially segments or all of everything that came in the house with the school kids (I can't believe we're still reading "Lord of the Flies" in school, can't we replace it with something else? )
