Ani's Ode to Books - My Childhood summed up with 6 Books - Day 1 -A Bit of an Intro

As we opened our cabin last weekend I was drawn up and into our attic family room. It has the best views in our 800sq' cabin and houses close to 1000 books. None of the books are mine though. My husband is a book hoarder. You know those apocalyptical preppers? That is him but with books. For what purpose, I am not exactly sure. He says retirement combined with his mission to save any book that could possibly become banned. It's sad that's our reality now.

My books are mostly fiction and alphabetized by author. They surround the kitchen/dining room/reading room on narrow white shelves built around the bright open views of the water. The young picture books and novels are homed on one wall in the attic below my hubbies shelves.

My children are teens now so I felt some melancholy as I flipped through my favourite children's books on the shelves. It brought up some memories. When my kids were tiny, I had a falling out with my dad's new wife. My mom died of cancer a year before he introduced us to this new wife to be. As we got to know her it became apparent that she had a mental illness I could never understand and I really wanted to. Loving her did not make it easier. She isolated my dad from my sister and I, his friends, family, and his grandkids. During this time she purged everything that was ours from the cabins and their house; family albums were tossed and all my children's toys and books given away or donated, including my beloved 80's books and games. I'm not big on stuff but I mourned the loss of my childhood books, books my dad had bought for me on his photography work adventures. It was hard walking around our family cabin after my dad died and everything was gutted. Five generations had been tossed in the back of truck or a trailer before we could buy our family property back from my dad's widow.

Okay, have I gotten you ripe with pain and pity? That was not entirely my plan but if you do decide to start a GoFundMe page, I will graciously accept your money. I am a writer so do not make a penny. Ha! Ha!

Back to the story: the recovery. After the disappointment of stepping into the stripped cabins I began to hunt for my lost books. I bought a couple new at McNally Bookstores but a few were not available anymore so I had little hope in finding them. (Amazon now carries a couple of them but that wasn't the case ten years ago.) One day by miracle I found nearly all of them at the Children's Hospital Book Market. I nearly cried as I filled my basket with my cherished friends. I had read these books so often when I was young that they became a part of me. It was one of my greatest days of healing after the sequence of tragedies that began with my mom's cancer.

Most of these books were never hot sellers so I'd suggest when book shopping, buy anything that looks interesting. Kids don't care at all if it's a top seller and please ignore any friend who says that your kid will talk earlier or will become some amazing genius if they buy this one trendy book. It's a lie. I read the same books to both my kids and one is super smart and the other is....well...we will say creative, kind of like me. It doesn't matter what your kids read, just find them books that spark their minds.

Okay, the intro is complete. I hope you will step into my childhood to learn a little more about why my brain is wired how it is. I can't completely blame these authors for creating yours truly but they did have some part in making my brain gel the way it did. See you soon with the big Top 6 Books that made me me.