From the age of five, I have come home from the library each week with an armful of books. As a child, I read to escape, to enter a world better than the one I lived in, a world of unicorns and magic, princes and princesses, cottages with white picket fences, Heathcliff and Catherine and their undying love. I read to feed my dreams. Through young adult years, I read seeking a blueprint on how to live, how to escape the pain and arrive at the elusive life I longed for, which can only be reached by living. In my aging years, I moved from fiction to stories from real life, for our lives are more fascinating and unbelievable than anything a writer can make up. I read stories that inspire, tales of not just survival, but transcendence of difficult or impossible circumstances with a modicum of grace. I read to visit all the places, make all the journeys I never will make in real life. Down all the years, week after week, how I love coming home with an armload of books.
Small child, young woman,
crone reading fast as light dims ~
books her constant friend
for Sumana's prompt at Midweek Motif: Books
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ReplyDeleteWuthering heights.. yes a true classic!!!
ReplyDeleteYes, yes--the journey of a reader! I wish I had written this!
ReplyDeleteI love this one!!! I love books, too.
ReplyDelete'an armful of books'...ah..what more could one want?..words do keep us alive and make us thrive...a wonderful haibun Sherry...
ReplyDeleteI might have written this, it suits my journey so well. Well said!
ReplyDelete"transcendence of difficult or impossible circumstances with a modicum of grace" ... Yes, this.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, an armful of books. What a joy!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading biographies too. I can relate so much to this, except that I didn't really start reading a lot until I graduated from college. My daughter started reading when she was very young.
ReplyDeleteThis is really good, Sherry. Ha, I remember taking those weekly trips to the library with my mother. She came home with an armful of books, and so did I. We would read together... I still like coming home from the library with books. However, now it is usually one or two rather than an armful. But definitely my mother was a good role model.
ReplyDeleteWonderful rea: .From one who has always lived close to libraries and found so many adventures in them.
ReplyDeleteAn armful of books is a curious mind. I am so glad that reading once provided you a way to escape.
ReplyDeleteLoved this...the very soul of this poem!
ReplyDeleteYep, me too. (Though in age I read less non-fiction and more escapist fiction!)
ReplyDeleteif you get hooked on reading books you will want them as your friends for the rest of your life. I do not recall any period in my life that I was not relaxing with a book in my spare time.
ReplyDeleteI love reading and watching documentaries now that I am older ~ Books are magical Sherry ~ Happy Easter ~
ReplyDelete"I read to feed my dreams." Yes! Yes, I do.
ReplyDeleteThe lines " our lives are more fascinating and unbelievable than anything a writer can make up." so true Sherry!
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