Welcome to my Book Page.  

I am about to indulge a secret wish of mine to be a book reviewer. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.  

I cannot remember when books were not a part of my life.  When I found this illustration I knew the artist had captured one of the things books are for me. When life is dark, and the nights are windy and the sea rolls and heaves, there is no better umbrella than a book.  Perched on a shoal with an upside down shepherd’s staff, the reader holds aloft a book that pours out life and hope and sunlight.  I attest that this has been true for me. I hope on these pages to be able to share some books that have been all of that for me.  

Books are friends for me. I have a primitive tendency to animate objects, most of all books. It is very hard for me to pass them on and some, I hope, they cremate with me. There are books that make me laugh out loud. There are books where I weep and cannot see the words on the page. Books take me places that I did not know I wanted to go and simply astonish me. If you read a book that I have read and loved then we are friends. Books expand my vocabulary. Where else would you use the word “picaresque”?  And of course books teach me so much; not only facts and data when that is what I am after but also how to live a “good” life. 

The arguments for and against e readers surround us. Myself, while I use an e reader often when I just cannot wait , then,  I go and buy the paper and print book because I have to hold it,  thumb through it and smell and touch it. Only then does it move to friend status. 

I like to read books to myself. Isn’t it fascinating to observe a child when reading goes “inside” as it were. I have observed my children and grandchildren do this. And I also like to read aloud and most of all I still like to be read to.  Is there much that is more special for readers than lovers reading poetry to each other on long car drives and committing poems to memory that forever shape their lives?  

As a grandmother when I received this photo from my daughter in a recent email, I knew my life had not been lived in vain. See in the late afternoon at a cottage, my four grandchildren, siblings and cousins, all immersed in real books with my son snoozing among them.  Hallelujah! Another generations of readers.

And now I must get to the next task of choosing and reviewing a book.  Soon.