My Top Books from 2024

What I consider my reading list is far from the Best Seller lists on the Internet or at a local bookstore. Many of the books I read are circumstantial; they are often books that I just happen across. While I do read the best-seller lists, their suggestions don’t always strike me. For one thing, there are so many choices I have to pick from. Looking through Book Pages, there are 30 or 40 books reviewed. I can at least eliminate some of them by their genre. I really don’t want to read any romance books or historical fiction, which is not to say that I never do. They just aren’t my favorites.

    I belong to a book club, and I enjoy most of the books we read. Suggestions from friends and booksellers have often turned into treasures worth keeping. Visiting the library or bookstores always has given me books that I enjoy. There is nothing like walking down a set of shelves and seeing what books might present themselves to me. I also enjoy reading older books, ones that have been out of print for awhile. Libraries and bookstores excel at these books!

    I keep a list of the books I’ve read and rate each book from 1 to 5. “Five” is a book I’d rave about and suggest to others while “one” is a book I don’t want to mention to anyone. These ratings are only my own thoughts, they are based on how the story grabbed me, how well it was written and of course, whether the subject matter excited me or not. It is a numerical version of how I felt after reading the last page.

    My reading preferences this year has been more fiction than non-fiction with a sprinkling of poetry tossed in. There were a couple books I started but put down before finishing, these weren’t included. There are too many books to read and not enough time. I don't want to spend time reading books I don’t enjoy. If they don’t grab me quickly, I pick up something else. I also tend to read a couple books at a time. Should one get tiring, I just go to another and slip right back into that story. The other one can wait awhile, just as this one has.

    These books have been rated at 5 in my records. They are listed as read, not by preference.

1) A Long Way Gone – Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by ishmeal beah. (NF-2007) This tells ishmael’s story, how he fled his village when he was 12 and how at 13 he was taken to become a government soldier in Sierra Leone. It is touching, scary and violent. It shows how some people are forced to live, and how they deal with it.

2) Learning to See, by Elise Hooper. (F-2019) This book is a fictionalized version of Dorothea Lange’s life. Having recently read another book about Dorothea Lange, I was surprised at how closely the book followed the details of her life.

3) The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride. (F-2023) Set in Pottstown, a mystery is presented to the community when a skeleton is unearthed. The story tells about how neighbors in a poor section of the town come together, never minding each other’s religion or race, to help each other during difficult times. We find out about the people in this Pennsylvania town and their thoughts and prejudices against each other.

4) All the Broken Places, by John Boyne. (F-2022) This book is about a woman; as a young girl, as a young woman and as a nonagenarian. (a woman in her 90’s) As a child she lived near a Nazi concentration camp that her father was in charge of. The book tells about her feelings of guilt and how it affects the decisions she makes as she goes through her life. It is very well written and has a few surprises in it.

5) One Dog, Two dog, Three Dog, Four…, by Paul Estronza La Violette. (NF-2007) On one of the trips that Ann Marie and I took this year, we passed what we thought was a bookstore. We drove up a long driveway and met Paul, the author of this book. He and his wife lived there and graciously invited us in and told us about their dogs, their hobbies and their history. The book is a collection of stories about the Weimaraners they had when they lived on the Gulf Coast. The stories just made me feel good!

6) The Globemakers, by Peter Bellerby. (NF-2023) This is a beautifully illustrated book about the craft of making world globes. Wanting to get a nice world globe for his father’s birthday, Peter attempted to make one himself. He discovered it was quite difficult. He eventually created a company to continue this art form. The globes this company makes are true art, no doubt about it.

7) The Burnt District, by Gary Link. (F-2003) This book, written by a local author, tells a tale about what the city of Pittsburgh was going through after the Great Fire. (April 10, 1845) As I read the book, I could easily imagine where he was writing about because of my familiarity of the city. The story follows the city’s history rather closely and includes some well know citizens in it.

8) James, by Percival Everett. (F-2024) This was a great book, especially if you've read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It can't help but make you think! I tore through the book, not wanting to put it down! I can't say I enjoyed (?) reading this book but I'm very glad that I did. The story is the same as Mark Twain's story about Huck with a few variations. The biggest one is that the story is told from Jim's (Jame's) viewpoint. A very good story and I'm sure it will become an important novel in the ages to come!

9) The Women, by Kristin Hannah. (F-2024) The book tells the story of "Frankie" who as a twenty-year-old, volunteers to go over to Viet-Nam as a nurse. It tells about the awful things she sees and experiences along with the friends and loves she encounters during her tours of duty. It also tells about all the things she loses while she is there!
    Coming back home she encounters another country than the one she left a couple years before. She isn't respected, her family doesn't know how to relate with her and she can't get any help for the traumas she experienced while helping the men and boys, she helped save. She is constantly told that "No women served in Viet-Nam". Luckily, she has friends that help her through the tough times.
    I read this book with damp eyes. There was so much in it that made me stop and reflect, mostly as to how lucky I was to have "just" missed having to go and experience this war myself. A lot made me think about my brother who experienced it firsthand, along with a good friend of mine who did likewise. Our country did a great disservice to the men and women who served in this war, and it can't help but make me think, is this still going on today?

10) Slow Train to Yesterday, by Archie Robertson. (NF-1945) Archie tells us about short line railroads and their appeal, both standard and small gage lines. He has ridden many of them and tells about the equipment, the scenery and the people who run them and ride them. He also discusses railfans (of which I am one!) and railroad clubs.

11) The Forest of Lost Souls, by Dean Koontz. (F-2024) Basically a good versus evil book. A woman who lives away from society, who is “one with the woods” ends up battling to protect a sacred section of land that an “evil” mastermind wants to develop for financial gain.

12) The Tender Bar: A Memoir, by J.R. Moehringer. (NF-2005) I thought this was a wonderful book. It is the story of a boy growing up, searching for a father figure. The bar his uncle owns provides a variety of father figures that help him through his life into adulthood. The question is, was he searching for his father or himself? I had seen the movie before the book, both are good!

13) The Life Impossible, by Matt Haig. (F-2024) An elderly math teacher inherits a small cottage on a Mediterranean island. It begins with an e-mail from a former student, telling her about her problems. Her reply is, basically the book. The book tells about her search to find out more information about the woman who bequeathed her house to her and the importance of protecting our planet and all the creatures on it. (Matt Haig’s book, The Midnight Library is also a great read!)

    I hope you see something that strikes your fancy and gets you to visit your local library or bookstore. Remember how important it is to continue supporting these valuable resources! If you are a reader, you know how important they are!

Happy New Year, I hope it is filled with lots of good books! Keep on reading!

Phil B

I'm Torn

 The yard outside my window looks like a kaleidoscope with yellows and oranges in constant motion, forever changing. The yard has been raked but the winds have brought more leaves, falling faster than the rake can handle. I should be outside working on the yard but instead, I am inside with my nose stuck in a book.

    I really should say “books”. My reading frequency fluctuates, it ebbs and flows and right now, I’m experiencing a bit of a flood. Don’t think I’m complaining though!

    Ann Marie had recently dropped off a book she thought I’d enjoy. Written by Anna Quindlin, it is an excellent book about writing. Titled “Write for Your Life”, it stresses the importance of putting your thoughts down on paper. The idea runs through her book that things such as letters and cards, things which have written on paper will survive much longer than the texts, e-mails and tweets we compose daily.

    I am also reading a book by John Berger called “About Looking”. This book of essays is a little bit deeper than Anna’s book. I tend to read a chapter and then think about it for a while.

    There are two other books I am in the middle of; I have been reading them for a couple months. They are interesting but whenever another book comes along, they tend to be set aside. One of them is about the origins of papyrus and paper and how they have changed the course of history. Titled “The Pharaoh’s Treasure”, by John Gaudet, I find it interesting to learn about these products and how they were made, but it really isn’t a “page turner”. The second one is called “Dirty Old London” by Lee Jackson. This book tells about how Victorian London worked to control the filth that was overwhelming the town. Animal waste, along with human waste combined with the dirt and dust of the roads and manufacturing was a real health problem. (Not to mention a laundry problem!) A very well written book but like “The Pharaoh’s Treasure”, when another book comes along, it is set aside.

    My most recent trip to the library netted me two more books to add to the list. I recently read “The Book Woman’s Daughter”, by Kim Michele Richardson which tells the story of a young girl in the Kentucky mountains who takes on her mother’s job as a pack horse librarian, supplying books to the people in the depths of Appalachia. One of the books she gave to someone was “The Golden Apples of the Sun” (1953) by Ray Bradbury. This is a collection of short stories. I had read it decades ago and since the name crossed my path, I ordered it from the library so I could read it again. My local library had a copy for me within a week.

    I also picked up “Do Androids Dream about Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick. (1968) I came across this book in another book I had recently read. I’ve read other novels by this science fiction author before and so, it's time to read another of his works! Like the other, the library had a copy for me in no time at all.

    I’ve mentioned the books I’m currently reading. When I picked up these last two volumes, I made a terrible (?) mistake. I read the first short story in the Bradbury book. Now there is a new conundrum in my life, do I continue reading it or set it aside until I’ve finished the others? Decisions, decisions!

    I’ll probably read all of them together; I often choose to read the book that happens to be nearest to me at the time!

    Some of the things I enjoy so much about reading are how one book will lead me to another and how easily one can remind me of another. Even if it is a single sentence, it might take me into a story I’ve read months, or even years ago.  Reading is a never-ending journey through the thoughts and experiences of others, people I come to admire and often look forward to their other writings. I never know where I might end up as I open a book!

    So, if you’ll excuse me, I have work that needs done here, and I’m not talking about raking!

Let It Rain, Let It Rain, Let It Rain

 

The rain is falling heavily, creating patterns in the pools on the sidewalks. The grass has a fresh green look to it. Sitting inside the quiet cocoon of the library, I’m warm, dry and comfortable. A pile of “new” books sits in front of me.

    It’s Monday morning, the day of the Queens funeral. Up early to watch the solemn ceremony and then off to a doctor’s office for a routine check-up, the hours without sleep haven’t caught up with me yet. The rain had commenced right as I had arrived at the doctor’s office, of course! There are still damp spots on my pants.

    A short distance away is one of my favorite spots, The Cooper-Siegel Community Library. The lot is filled this morning but inside, other than a few laughs and giggles from the children’s room, all is quiet, as it always is. An empty table beside a window provided a home base for my visit.

    Though I check out the books on display as I come in, the used bookshelf is still my first stop. This library always has a splendid selection of books for sale, the majority of them for under a dollar.

    Carefully perusing the volumes, I select a few and start a pile on the librarian’s desk. A book of memoirs, The River Quickens, signed by its author starts the pile. This is soon followed by a barely read library book about Victorian England’s fight against filth titled, Dirty Old London. I’ll probably be the 3^rd or 4^th person to read it…if not the first!

    A hardback Readers Digest edition of Lost Horizon was added, replacing the paperback edition I had just picked up moments earlier. Fifty cents as compared to twenty-five, I can handle that. Once it is read, it will be re-donated back to the library to allow someone else to purchase it.

    An old book (1922) on the Elements of Plane Trigonometry joined the pile simply because it looked nice and it was in good shape. Not bad for a quarter. Lastly, my most expensive purchase, (75 cents) was a new, unread copy of The Writing of the Gods. A hardback, published last year, telling about the de-coding of the Rosetta stone.

    I purchased my books, adding a small amount to the library’s coffers and returned to my table. The rain was still falling; I’ll stay here, inside and dry until it lets up a bit. There is a cup of coffee sitting in the cup holder in the car, I can hear it calling to me! But until the rain slows down, I’ll be content to read a bit longer. I’m always happy here.

Traveling

     Snow was starting to fall outside and the weathermen were predicting a rough morning. I was content to sit near the window and enjoy the scene from inside the warmth of my house. There was a book I was reading so I wouldn’t be bored if the snow got high enough to keep me indoors. 

    Watching the snowflakes accumulate brought back memories of hiking during the winter months in the Laurel Highlands, visiting the mountains near Port Angeles Washington and driving through snow storms in West Virginia. Visiting Stonehenge on a New Years Day popped into my mind along with a visit to the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.  Driving through the snowy German countryside, those were the days!

               

                                                        (Not my shots)

    I haven’t been on an airplane in ages. New York City is the furthest I’ve traveled lately and it definitely whetted my appetite for another visit.

    Due to the current state of our world, the amount of traveling has decreased everywhere. Whether it is because of fears of the pandemic, travel restrictions, the dropping of the economy or just worries about the general safety of visiting foreign places, people seem to be leaving their homes less than before.

    No matter what your reason may be, the opportunities for travel are always with us. There are numerous ways to leave your house without stepping out the door!

    The internet has provided ways that you can work without leaving the house, why not travel also? Whether it is to research places you’ve always wanted to visit or by watching other people’s adventures, you can visit the world while sitting in front of your laptop or TV.

    My own personal means of traveling without leaving the house is via literature. Books have the ability to take us to places we’ve never been to. We can learn about the citizens, the economy, their language and their weather. We don’t have to learn a new language to travel across an ocean. There is no need to take a two week vacation or to spend thousands on expenses.

    Of course, there will be some things missed such as the smells, the tastes of unknown foods and the excitement of trying to figure out foreign languages. Granted there is nothing, and I repeat, NOTHING that can compare to actually going to a new locale. But, reading can come mighty close!

    A good author can describe those smells and sounds along with the excitement of new experiences. They can share joys and the insecurities of travel along with the wonder of seeing things never thought of before. Good writers can take you along on their journey and make you feel as if you are experiencing it for yourself. If you want to, they can also take you to places inaccessible to man such as to the moon or other planets or even the center of your mind! They don’t have to be just non-fiction!

    Looking at my shelves I quickly pulled out some books that have taken me on various trips. I didn’t look long or hard, I just grabbed a couple. These are a few of them.

     A long time favorite of mine is Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck. Written towards the later part of his life, the book tells about his journey across the United States in a pickup-truck along with his pet dog, Charley.  This book never fails to excite the traveler in me. How much of it is factual and how much is fiction…it really doesn’t matter.

    The Wheels of Chance by H.G. Wells tells about a man’s bicycle journey across the English countryside and the meeting of a young lady while on his trip. The book describes the scenery and also describes a time when the automobile wasn’t a constant user of the roads. Wells was a cyclist himself, perhaps drawing from his own experiences when he wrote this story. I read this book when I was an avid cyclist myself, it helped pass time on a few of those rainy Pittsburgh days.

    Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin describes for us the authors attempt to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. After his failure to get to the top he takes us into the villages in the lands below. His book not only explores the mountain tops of the Himalayas but also exposes us to the living conditions of the people who live with these majestic mountains in their backyard. He took me to a place I would love to visit, but I know I never will.

    Is it more than just scenery, oceans, seas and mountaintops that interest you?  Jules Verne takes us on an exciting trip in, Journey to the Center of the Earth. First published in France in 1864, one hundred and fifty eight years ago, it still tells a great story. Professor Lindenbrock believes that there are volcanic tubes which lead down to the center of the earth. He and his nephew and a guide go into an inactive volcano in Iceland and eventually return to the surface in Italy. During their adventure they discover an underground ocean and prehistoric creatures along with other dangers that threaten their journey. I read this first in grade school but I still find it an enjoyable bit of travel in my sixties!

    A completely different type of trip is told by John Waters in his book Carsick. Partially fact and partially fiction, (?) he tells about the time he hitch-hiked across the country. He carried a sign saying, “I’m not psycho!” It is a fun story that sometimes delves into his weird mind. When you’re reading it, consider who it was that wrote it. Enjoy your trip!

    To round out my little batch of books, I pulled out Walking With Spring, written by Earl V. Shaffer. In 1948, the Appalachian Trail wasn’t in the same shape that it is now. There was neglect in the marking of the trail and sections were filled with blow downs and were rerouted due to lack of manpower during the war years. Shaffer, a vet, decided to hike the trail from one end to the other. He ended up doing it twice and wrote this book shortly afterwards. He was the first documented person to walk from one end to the other in one continuous hike. If your idea of a trip is one by foot, this is a great read for you and while you’re reading it, you just might get excited about going out and doing some hiking yourself! 

    These are just a few books that I pulled out. All took me on journeys to different places. Whether they are non-fiction or just the imagination of the author, either way, they took me on a journey. The only danger consisted of staying up too late while I was reading!

    Books are literary travel agencies! Who know where you might end up when you open the cover of a book.

    I love to go to places I’ve never been to before. The best way to travel is in person but as I get older the circle of my travels has decreased. I do know that more adventures await me but for the time being, my next big adventure is right here, in-between the pages of my books!

    So, grab a book and let it snow!

The Lincoln Highway

         I find that as a book reviewer, I really don’t excel. My reviews tend to slip into such terms as “really good” or “a real good read”. I also tend to shy away from bad reviews, favoring a simple “it was OK’ rather than delving into the reasons why I didn’t like it. No author wants to see how bad their book was. But that won’t be a problem with the book I just read!

        I recently finished the book, “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles. I think this book deserves as much praise as I can ladle on to it!

        “The Lincoln Highway” is a thick book which in itself is a bit off putting but once I had read the first chapter, I knew I’d be in it for the long haul!

        Briefly, the story is about 18 year old Emmet who was just released from a work farm. His father had died, his mother had run off a few years before and he had a younger brother, Billy, that he had to take care of. The farm had been foreclosed and they decided to head to California to start anew. Hopefully they might find their mother there. The Lincoln Highway would take them straight to San Francisco.

        Two men from the work camp show up and complicate the brother’s journey. Their trip takes many sidetracks as they go. The story takes place over 10 days in July of 1954, but the story encompasses so much more.

        We read the tales of the people they meet, their aspirations and often their failures. We see comparisons to famous heroes and legendary characters as the story continues.

        The author has a definite skill in storytelling! His previous book, “A Gentleman in Moscow” is another favorite of mine. When I was first told about it, I had no interest or desire to read it, but after starting it, I had trouble putting it down!

        While reading "The Lincoln Highway", I came across a lot of quotable lines such as these;

        “For what is kindness but the performance of an act that is both beneficial to another and un-required”

        “A funny thing about a story is that it can be told in all sorts of lengths”

        “If a story is worth reading again, it is worth reading word for word”

        “Questions can be tricky, like forks in the road. You can be having such a nice conversation and someone will raise a question, and the next thing you know you’re heading off in a whole new direction. In all probability, this new road will lead you to places that are perfectly nice, but sometimes you just want to go in the direction you were already headed.”

        “There are few things more beautiful to an author’s eye than a well read copy of one of his books!”

        Amor wrote how many heroes’ stories are like a diamond lying on its side.

        They start out at a point, a very specific place or time and it expands as the hero grows, as the story follows their lives, their battles, goals and accomplishments. Then, at some time unknown to the hero, and often the reader, the story lines take a bend, they start to converge, leading towards a final battle or confrontation, the fixed and inexorable point which defines their fate.

        I believe that this is the way of most good novels also!

        I won’t tell anything more about the story or any of the characters they meet on their quest since I don’t want to spoil the book for you. I would much rather that you experience it for yourself!

        Like favorite recipes, favorite books aren’t necessarily good for everyone. There will always be some who just don’t care for the taste. That isn’t a problem; it is just the way the world works! Still, if someone enjoys the taste well enough to rave about it, I feel as if I should at least give it a try.

        I found this book was delicious! Give it a taste, I really think you’ll stay for the whole meal!

The Roads We Travel

 

        Looking at the books sitting on my shelves, I can see the connecting threads between them. Some are obvious while others are hidden between the words within them. I find that there is more than threads that connect them together, there are actual roads. Some are major highways and others just slight trails through the brush.

        I find it amazing how a peculiar subjects is sometimes mentioned in more than one of the books I’ve read. It might be a simple paragraph which takes me back to a book I’ve just finished. It usually isn’t anything special, often just a sentence or two that drags me back. I sometimes think it is just my imagination but yet, I know that both of these books have had the same idea or subject matter in them!

        Here’s an example; in the book Bloodless by Preston and Child, a bit of the plot involves the disappearance of D.B. Cooper. (He was a man who hijacked an airplane in the early 70’s. He parachuted into a storm and was never seen again.) Later when I was reading Stephen Kings’ newest book, Billy Summers, there is a mention of D.B. Cooper in one of the final pages. It is just a sentence or two but still, there was that name, one I hadn’t heard in years. Both of these books were published within a week of each other so I don’t think one got the idea from the other. It is just an odd occurrence, a slight path which mentally connects one book to another.

        I came across another road…this one dealing with trees. In the book Arbornaut by Meg Lowman, the author tells about her life studying trees, climbing into them and exploring their crowns. In the book she tells how she taught herself how to climb into these huge trees so she could discover what had never been studied before. A book or two later, (Yes, I tend to think of books as periods of time) while reading Fuzz by Mary Roach, I came across another of these trails. Her book is about animals that break our laws and how we, as society tend to take care of them. In one of her chapters she tells the readers about how trees also can be deadly, how people can be killed and how property can be damaged by them. She describes how certain men are skilled at taking them down and pruning them to avoid these things. (She is talking about sequoias and redwoods, very LARGE trees.) In this chapter she goes on to tell us how these workers climb these huge trees and safely do their jobs. It isn’t a major road but once again, there is a definite connection between these books.  I love these coincidences!

        Sometimes it is a highway that takes me from one spot to another. Finishing a book that I really enjoyed, I’ll often look up another of the writers’ works. The expressway takes me right to it. There are times that their book is in my collection and when I go to get it, there is a short road leading right to the book beside it. A slight detour, but it is frequently a detour I don’t mind taking!

        I’ve always thought that it never hurts to follow a detour, sometimes you get lost but most of the time you eventually get to where you wanted to go! As long as time isn’t of the essence, go for it! You never know what you’ll see or might find!

        Should you be taken to a spot you have visited before, it can be comforting. It is nice to visit with old friends. Old familiar sights can warm your heart!

        These roads, highways and modest trails take me to places I’ve never been to before and almost always, I enjoy the trip. There are occasions when I back up and forget about the road simply because I didn’t enjoy the scenery. There is no shame to that since I know; there are plenty of other roads to explore. I don’t have to travel them all!

        Mentally, there are times when I feel that these byways are taking me away from the reality and obligations of the world I live in and I can guess that’s probably true. I’ve been traveling these roads since I first learned to read, since I first realized how many roads there were and how exciting it can be to travel them! I know how roads can help a person escape.

        I’ll always be a traveler, as long as I’m still able to comprehend where the roads are taking me. Rain or shine, I’ll always enjoy the trips! No map or compass is needed; I know where they’re going!

The Dictionary

 

I pulled a dictionary off of the shelf in the living room this morning. There were at least ten other dictionaries sitting near-by. I pulled out the oldest one of the batch. The Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language.

               The red hardback cover is worn and the edges of the pages have a definitely dirty look to them. It has the appearance of being well used.

               The other dictionaries are newer and have more illustrations in them along with some words which weren’t being used when the older book was published. Still, this old worn book is the one that is most often consulted.

               It was a present to my father from my mother on Christmas of 1966. I know this because of the inscription on the title page written by my father. I would have been ten years old that Christmas. I can remember the times my parents sent me to it, to find out how to spell a word or to find out what a word meant. Rather than just telling me, they taught me how to search for an answer.

               There were always books in our house. Reading was one of the things we did! Newspapers, magazines, comic books, Readers Digest compilations and of course, dictionaries, they were all there. My parents had a small collection of books and this prompted me to start my own collection.

               My father taught me when I was small how to treat books. I can remember us sitting at the dining room table and him showing me how to properly turn a page. He explained that I should never lick my finger to help accomplish the task. He told me how I should never write in a book or use thick objects as book marks. I should never have my crayons near a book unless it was a coloring book.

               These instructions didn’t mean a lot to me at the time but I find that to this day, I still follow them. I try my best to keep my books in as good a shape as possible.

               While holding that dictionary, a book that is now in its fifty-fifth year of occupying that shelf, I thought about my parents books. I thought about the quality of them and how they held up through the years. I also thought about how many of them bear inscriptions and signatures and how slips of paper and newspaper articles have stained the pages while they marked favorite recipes or paragraphs. I thought about how so many of them have notes penciled in the borders. These are all things I was instructed not to do, but they are the very things which make these books so valuable to me! 

               The marginalia, the little things my parents left in there for me to find in the future are what make them so special.

               I still attempt to keep my books note free but I don’t have as much aversion as I used to about making a small note in them every so often. Putting a star beside the title of a poem I enjoyed or putting some parentheses around a paragraph I want to remember, I have learned to live with these minor infractions. Yes, I have even underlined a sentence or two occasionally.

               Perhaps someone in the future will find them helpful, humorous or insightful, much like I have. I can only hope!

The Good Old Days

The Good Old Days            

                Preparing to enter work, I tied my face mask on, positioning it to avoid fogging my glasses, picked up my lunch box and headed into the building. In the lobby, I was directed to stand on a star where I was scanned to make sure my temperature wasn’t too high. Passing that test, I was allowed to enter the plant.

                The company has always been strict when it comes to safety. You have to wear steel toed shoes and safety glasses are a necessity. Gloves are also required for the workers. So when the state mandated masks for employees, we never flinched. The temperature scans fell in right behind the masks. (Would this be next? “Ok, everyone line up to get your GPS tracker. It will only hurt a little bit.)

                There have been a lot of changes in the last month or two. I think that the biggest thing people miss is socializing. It is tough staying at home. We miss being able to talk with someone face to face, being able to hug a friend or loved one and not having to worry about any consequences.

                I just heard about a study, (I don’t know who did it or even if it’s true or not, but I tend to imagine it is.) saying that a lot of senior citizens have been going to the grocery stores a couple times a week,  even though they didn’t need any groceries. It was mostly for the human contact, seeing other people. It doesn’t matter whether you know them or not, it’s other human beings!

                There are plenty of things I miss. Remember how nice it was to sit down at a table and have a waiter take your order, place it in front of you and ask if there was anything else you’d like? How about getting a haircut, I never thought I’d miss those! Being able to leave the house on a whim, not planning or calling ahead before you leave. Going somewhere without worrying if the place is open or not, those were the days!

                I really miss sitting down with Ann Marie and playing a couple games of Scrabble. Drinking a cup of coffee together and talking about the day. Sitting outside together under the tree or watching television together…in the same house!

                One of the things we both miss is visiting bookstores and libraries. The day the libraries closed is burned in my brain. We had gone to see if our favorite vegetable stand had reopened yet and on the way back, decided to check our e-mails. We pulled into a library and the parking lot was empty. A notice was posted on the door saying all the libraries in the commonwealth were closed as of March 13^th. Friday the 13^th! We drove to a couple different libraries and they all were closed. That was the day the “virus” hit home. Not long afterwards, the stores all shut down. Our supply of paper reading materials was shut off!

                   I'm really looking forward to being able to go inside bookstores again. To roam through the shelves, scan the titles, pulling out books that look interesting and paging through them. To be able to feel the texture of the pages, thick, thin, slick or rough is something I hold dear.  Reading a paragraph or two before deciding if it should come home with me or if it should be returned to the shelf, it’s part of the bookstore experience. I know we will have to wear our masks to enter the stores. That won’t be a problem! If they really want me to, I’ll even wear gloves. (Preferably cotton ones)

                So many of the stores we frequent are smaller shops and I worry about their surviving this nasty time in our history. The public doesn’t have as much spare cash as they did a few months ago, their unessential spending will have decreased a bit. (Some of us consider books an essential need, they are vital to life!) The shops have bills which need paid, rents which need taken care of. I hope and pray that bookstores won’t become a thing of the past.  I worry about this! The thought of it sends chills down my spine.  I don’t want to do my book buying on-line! To me, so much of the experience of buying a book is tactile, smelling, feeling and paging through them prior to buying. There is also the contact with the booksellers! Discussing authors, recent reads, new books, scuttlebutt about the book industry, they are my friends and I’d miss seeing them. Bookstores are community meeting places, places where ideas and stories are passed around.

                Yes, a lot of things have changed and will be changing. Hopefully we will all be able to deal with them and to change along with them.

                I can’t help but wonder, how is it possible that “The Good Old Days” were only a couple months ago?

                                                                                                                (5.2.2020)

Anticipation

      Since the stores have all been closed and we have been asked to limit our travel, a lot of things have changed. Seeing friends and family, doing the things we all accept as normal. Chances are, that the way we live will be changed in more ways than one.

     While waiting out this event I've spent a lot of time thinking, recalling good times and adventures and one of the things I keep coming back to is looking forward to being able to visit bookstores and libraries again. They are a huge part of my life and I really am anticipating going back to them!

     I had written this back in 2017, back in the "good old days".  This can be interpreted in more ways than one...

 

 

Anticipation

 

    Taking a breath

I pull the door open

And enter

A world of words.

Different lands,

Altered realities,

Inner space and outer.

Happiness, sadness,

Romance, adventure,

Worlds unexplained.

 

Books and more books.

Arranged on edge

 
Held in place

By their neighbors.

Stacked one atop another,

Row after row,

Thick, thin,

Tall and short.

 

Running my hand

Along their spines,

I look for favored authors,

Beloved subjects,

Hunt for new titles.

Opening a book or two

Scanning the pages

I look for words

Which connect.

 

With luck a book

 

Will be sitting

On its’ shelf,

Waiting for me

To walk past

So it can jump out

And grab me!

 

Putting my hand on the door

I revel in the moment

The second before

I pull it open.

A moment of excitement,

Never knowing what

I’ll find inside.

 

 

                                                                    Phil Breidenbach     (2.11.2017)