Today I stumbled on a fun post with many great comments and links about reading choices: Bibliophile Me by Purviben Kishorkumar Trivedi-Ziemba. I learned about and found links to traditional children’s folktales from India. I’m excited to learn about them.
I remember when I was about eight years old, I was allowed to walk to the public library to check out books. I was so excited to have a library card and to get a brown paper bag with handles to carry my choices.
Summers in North Dakota are hot and humid, so opening those large doors on the three story brick build to enter a cool place was itself worth the five block walk. But stepping downstairs to the children’s section with thousands of books from which to choose, was a dream come true. I could sit on the cool linoleum floor, pull a book off the shelf, and sit and read for hours before making my choices and head back out into the heat, walking home with my paper bag filled with books, my library card carefully tucked inside one of the books marking my first place to start reading as soon as I got home.
I distinctly remember “Mr. Apple’s Family” by Jean McDevitt. I remember sitting in the aisle on the cold white linoleum in front of tan wooded bookcases to carefully read and laugh throughout the little book. Even though I finished it sitting in the coolness, I still checked it our to reread it again at home. This slice of my life flashed into my mind while reading Purviben’s Slice of Life about her reading family, and I thank Purviben for sparking this memory.
This post is written for11th Annual Slice of Life Story challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers . During whole month of March, we will share a slice of our lives. Please join too.
Sheri,
Thanks for bringing me back to my early days when the town library used to open only in the evenings and the check out limit was 2 books for kids, 5 for adults.
Like you, me & my sister used to run to the library each evening. I remember plopping down & devouring the books till the old uncle librarian would gently remind that it is past closing time & we need to finish whatever we were reading so he can close.
Thanks for the beautiful piece & linking my blogpost in your post.
Happy writing.
Purviben
@TrivediZiemba
Purviben, I remember at first we had book limits at our library too, but later we could fill our little paper bag. Such a joy! How fun to know we’ve had similar experiences! It’s a small world… Thanks for stopping by. ~ Sheri