Bookish Delights

As I sleepily wandered down the stairs this morning, I found that I was musing on the book that kept me up late last night. Today I am feeling very grateful for people who write books, so I'd like to express my appreciation, or in today's vernacular send a "shout out" to authors. I have recently read several books that I've enjoyed very much. Barely scratching the surface of the topic leads me to list some thoughts.

Books --
Inform
Amuse
Bring history to life
Give glimpses into places we'd never go
Take us to events we could never attend
Explore ethical and moral issues

Exercise our imaginations
Broaden our horizons
Challenge notions and preconceptions

Thanks --
For God given talent and creativity

For hours spent in research
For careful crafting of words and sentences

For differing methods, voices, style

For opinions and translations

For inventiveness and countless topics
For pressing on through endless revisions and editorial conferences and publishers requirements

Literarily speaking there's nothing that matches a hard cover book printed on seriously good paper complete with a solid binding and traditional font.

But I must admit there are advantages to using an ereader. For one thing I don't have to keep buying more bookshelves! The downside is that I can't share my copy with you.

An author I chatted with once made this rather profound statement, "One doesn't write writing, one writes reading". There's little point to written words that remain unread! Which puts me in mind of the Bible - God is the author - it's meant to be read - it encapsulates all components of a good book – clearly there are good reasons for it to be called The Good Book.

Every good story has a satisfactory ending and this post would miss that mark if after whetting the reader's apetite, I concluded without mentioning a couple of the titles which prompted my reflections today.

All the Tea in China by Jane Orcutt

Against the Tide by Elizabeth Camden
And the books I have reread more than any other, the Mitford series by Jan Karon

As with every subject, there is so much more that could be said about authors, literature, reading, writing, illustrating, and considering the news from Paris these days, cartooning and freedom of speech.  Whether your bent is towards science, travel, mysteries, history, romance, science fiction or just plain fiction and everything inbetween, I thank all those hard working authors and wish you