Reading

“I am a product of long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude, distant noises of gurgling cisterns and pipes, and the noise of wind under the tiles. Also, of endless books. My father bought all the books he read and never got rid of any of them. There were books in the study, books in the drawing room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic, books of all kinds reflecting every transient state of my parents’ interest, books readable and unreadable, books suitable for a child and books most emphatically not. Nothing was forbidden me. In the seemingly endless rainy afternoons I took volume after volume from the shelves. I had always the same certainty of finding a book that was new to me as a man who walks into a field has of finding a new blade of grass.”
–C.S. Lewis

I am happiest when surrounded by books. I suppose that is why I have three full shelves in my room and books stack in the corners. One of my favorite pastimes is to browse used bookstores in search for treasures. I have collected many beautiful antique books over the years, and my collection continues to grow (hence the piles of books in corners and the overflow of books now boxed up in my closet and attic. I just can't bare to get rid of them).

Some books are just for fun such as Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Alice & Wonderland, or anything by Wodehouse.

Some books are so delicious and beautiful or beautifully sad like, The Giver, Pride & Prejudice, The Lord of the Rings, The Kite Runner, Out of the Silent Planet, The Help, Ella Enchanted, A Wrinkle in Time, The Orchid Thief, or My Life in France.

Other books spirit you away to exciting worlds of adventure: Peter Pan, The Hobbit, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, or Around the World in 80 Days.

And there are those books that change you; that alter your life in profound ways:
The Horse & His Boy, Till We Have Faces, Charlotte's Web, The Hunger Games, Dandelion Wine,  One Small Boat, Another Place at the Table, and The Harry Potter series. I wouldn't be the person I am without these stories. They have been my friends and my teachers and I love them.