A Book for Book Lovers

I chose Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading from Amazon Vine because the description sounded just like me. Thank heaven I did receive this book. I connected with Nina Sankovitch so much that I felt like I was reading a long letter from my best friend. Obviously, this qualifies as my best read in a long, long time.

Sankovitch was the youngest of three sisters born to Russian immigrants. She grew up in a suburb of Chicago in a bookish, close knit family. Eventually the family all ended up in New York City, except for Nina who lives in Connecticut with her husband, his daughter, and their four sons. Sankovitch seems to have boundless energy. She's a lawyer like her husband and their home is a happy place of fun times with the kids.

Then her eldest sister, Anne-Marie, died of cancer at the age of 46. She was devastated but felt that from then on she must live life to the fullest. In truth she was trying to run away from her grief. As she neared her own 46th birthday though, she realized the frantic racing around trying to do everything wasn't working. The only way to cope was to face her grief and look for serenity in books. Well, that's exactly what I would do. She took it far beyond what I would do though, because she decided to read one book a day for her 46th year, good books no more than 300 pages long, never one author more than once, and she would review each book the following morning on a blog.

Most people would think she was nuts, but I absolutely "got" it. She turned her music room into a reading room and used an old purple chair for her comfortable reading place. She read all types of books and learned from many of them life lessons that were of great use to her as she learned to live without her sister.

This book tells not only of that reading year, but stories about her family, her childhood, her sons, her relationship with her step-daughter, and her marriage. I finished the book admiring her for her maturity, her energy, and her loving nature. I also knew as I turned the final page that Sankovitch will be fine; she found her answers in her year of reading.

I recommend this book highly to anyone who loves books and depends upon them for solace or escape in times of need, and especially for book addicts like me.

Drowning in Magazines

Help! I'm drowning in magazines!

I haven't posted anything for a few days because I've been trying to read a few of the magazines on my table before the whole stack falls over. I love books but I also love magazines and I'm forever trying to catch up with the latter. Since my favorite magazines are long reads like THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR, WILSON QUARTERLY, HARPER'S, THE NATION, THE ATLANTIC, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, and several history journals it takes a while. I also receive a couple health newsletters about "our" diseases. Too, I find that the older I get the slower I read nonfiction. In other words, this is frustrating. It's sort of like Chinese water torture . . . drip, drip, drip.

The next book I've selected to read is a big one so I think it'll be quite a while before you see another post about my reading.

No Books in House!

Recently while I was cooking I turned on HGTV to see what new design horrors they've come up with. They were showing a woman in a beautiful house with bookcases on each side of a fireplace in her living room. She was saying, "I don't know what to do with those shelves. They absolutely have to go!"

Well, after I picked myself up off the floor, I had to take a close look at this house. As far as I could see there were no books and no magazines at all in the house except for the children's schoolbooks in their rooms. I was flabbergasted. Not only did I wonder how anyone could live without any sort of reading material in the house, I worried about the example this set for the children in the family.

I've always thought that my parents were responsible for turning me into an avid reader and that my good grades in school were because of my father's example. Both of my parents read the local newspaper every day and on Sundays we bought the Chicago Tribune. I don't remember how old I was when I took up the habit but I was quite young. Both of my parents read books as well. My father preferred technical books, but they joined the Book of the Month Club when I was a small child and both of them read the bestsellers. They subscribed to magazines such as National Geographic and the Saturday Evening post. There was always something new to read.

My father was a self-made man who missed out on college because of the Depression. In lieu of that experience, he took every math course offered by the correspondence school at the University of Illinois. I remember Mom and I being quiet nearly every evening because he was studying, so I grew up thinking lifelong learning was a desirable trait.

They took me to the library to get a card and borrow books, they put bookshelves in my bedroom and gave me some of the shelves beside the fireplace for my books, and I don't ever remember them saying I should put a book aside to do anything else. I was perhaps overly sheltered from outdoor activities because my mother was afraid I would get hurt, but they never censored my reading. (One comical memory is that my mother liked to read the old pulp detective magazines of the 40s but she hid them from my father knowing he wouldn't approve. It was her only deception in a long marriage.)

My own house is overflowing with books, a fact my father would shake his head at. He was big on discipline. I've had a big effect on my husband. He wasn't a reader when we married but now takes so many magazines concerning his work and his hobbies that the mail carrier is about to go on strike. No regrets. I think this is the only way to live and I thank my parents immensely for starting me on the right path.

My Favorite Book Sale

All year I look forward to the first Friday in August. The Blueberry Festival in Montrose, PA runs that Friday and Saturday as a benefit for the county library system and historical society. The blueberries aren't the big draw for me although I love them. We have plenty of berries on our own bushes, especially in a rainy summer like this one has been. We do always buy raffle tickets for the quilt made by local ladies; this year's is the prettiest ever I think. Haven't won in 14 years but you never know. That isn't really the big attraction for me either.

No, the attraction that pulls me to the town green early that Friday morning is the giant book sale. I learned shortly after we moved here that this area is populated by mystery lovers. I fit right in. That means many residents do the same thing I do - stock up on mysteries at the book sale and then donate them right back the next summer. We have quite a recycling program going. There are also boxes of books by other popular writers, but the majority of boxes are full of favorite mystery writers such as Robert L. Parker, Martha Grimes, Sue Grafton, P.D. James, Marcia Muller, and others.

Each year I try a few new authors. If I don't like the books, it's no great loss for me and I've made a donation to a cause I care about. The problem is that I also buy some nonfiction books that I keep, adding to the overflow in my own library. I'll bring home something like four large tote bags full, and donate three.

In November I go to the Putnam Publishing Co. annual warehouse sale in the Binghamton area and come home with a box or two of new books. Some of those will get donated to the Blueberry Festival, but many of those as well stay on my shelves.

Years ago my husband built a library for me in a spare bedroom. It has floor to ceiling shelves on two walls. I remember him saying at the time that I'd never fill those shelves. I just grinned. Sure enough, he had hardly finished building them when they were full. Still, I have stacks of books around, and more bookcases downstairs filled.

At least I'm not alone in this situation. Every time I go to a book sale I'll overhear people talking about the overflow of books in their house and how they absolutely must do something about it. Our library will soon break ground on a new building near the high school so the historical society can take over the old building on the green. Both are in dire need of more room. In Susquehanna County people do read. Not all of us can afford to buy new books, but we certainly make good use of what books are available to us. I think that speaks very well of the people of northeastern Pennsylvania.