Skip to main content

An empty library is a terrible thing

My friend retweeted that a Pittsburgh K-8 school has an empty library and an Amazon wish list. I bought The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush. Know why? Because it kicks ass and more children should read it. Also because EMPTY LIBRARY.

This is one of the few times I will admit to being warm and squishy about books. Books you read as a kid have the most impact on you, because your critical faculties are pretty much at zero. This is why if anyone ever insulted The Mud Pony, I'd be like "HEY BUDDY FUCK YOU," even though I'm pretty sure the boy in the story would not be pro-that reaction (by the way, everyone should read The Mud Pony, for it is magical).

I'll occasionally find books I read as a kid and be like "Oh....I remember being REALLY into this picture, but I'm not sure why anymore." Which is sad, right? Because if you're really young and maybe not so awesome at reading yet, you're all over the pictures. And you notice everything about them. Then you get older, and the most attention you give pictures is maybe five seconds.

Ah, younger days

Which reminds me, there's a kickass quote by George Eliot regarding childhood and how a lot of one's love comes from what is experienced during that time:
"We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it,—if it were not the earth where the same flowers come up again every spring that we used to gather with our tiny fingers as we sat lisping to ourselves on the grass; the same hips and haws on the autumn’s hedgerows; the same redbreasts that we used to call 'God’s birds,' because they did no harm to the precious crops. What novelty is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known, and loved because it is known?"
I guess we have the trade off of being able to appreciate good writing and complicated characters and all that, but BEFORE THAT, I'm so glad we have the window where we can just stare at pictures for minutes upon minutes and love the books so much they have to travel with us. Hurrah for childhood.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy