I’m always peeking at other people’s bookshelves, and so I thought I would give you a peek at mine. While I read many books on my Kindle, I still read print books, too. And these are ones that I’m currently reading, and which sit on my computer desk.
“Don’t start your day with the broken pieces of yesterday…” – Unknown
A Big Brown Dictionary
A long time ago, before I knew happily ever after only happened in fairy tales, I read with a dictionary nearby. It was a big, old brown book with scars on its cover, and tattered page edges that I found in a wooden cabinet that was stuffed with all my grandfather’s abandoned books. He died when I was two, and I claimed the bookcase and its contents even before I learned to read.
This is one of my living room book shelves.
The books were ones my grandfather had collected over the years, and included many of the classics, like the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Louis Stevenson. These books contained many strange words to one who was only just learning to read. But when I came across a word whose meaning I couldn’t figure out, I got out that grand old dictionary.
I didn’t know it then but that dictionary and all those books, which nobody else in the family wanted, provided me the perfect apprenticeship for becoming a writer.
While most of the words I looked up have faded in my memory, I still remember how I felt the day I discovered the meaning of flotsam and jetsam. The phrase, as I had come across it in a book, hadn’t been used in a nautical way, so its meaning puzzled me for quite a while. But eventually I caught on, and my education in multiple meanings and nuances was given a giant boost.
And this is another. Before I sized down for my RV travels, I had book cases in every room of my house. I haven’t quite repeated that in my Tucson apartment, but I can say you will find books in every room of my home.
Flotsam and jetsam became my own mantra for the jumbled thoughts that continually meandered through my mind.
I’m not sure what happened to that old dictionary, it probably just disintegrated and vanished into nothingness. There were many big old red and sometimes blue dictionaries that accompanied me on life’s journeys after that brown one. But they, too, have disappeared from my life.
But it’s a rare day that I don’t use an online dictionary. While my vocabulary is much larger these days, I’m still learning new words, and new nuances. What a great legacy the grandfather I never knew left me.
While happily ever after might not exist in life, reading happily ever after does.
Blog pick of the day.
Bean’s Pat: Flights of Wonder http://tinyurl.com/mdoxb3p Red-tailed chicks. One of my favorite bloggers.
Pat Bean's blog 
Hi, Pat. I still have the great big old Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary that my Mom gave me for a birthday present. The cloth cover is tattered and covered with water-mark stains from all the years it sat on my bedside table, ready for use at any hour. Of course, now that my Mom is gone, I think of her every time I use it. Though I also use online dictionaries, there’s just something about perusing through the dictionary. Often, I end up getting lost in all the words and end up forgetting which word I was actually looking up!! Thanks, by the way, for the shout out. It means so much, as I enjoy your blog and respect your writing!!
Thanks Judy. I wish I still had my grandfather’s dictionary, but there were many moves, and downsizing, in my life even before I scaled things down so my possessions would all fit in a small RV. But I’m glad I still have my memories.
Ah, the memories are the best of all! The rest is just stuff! 🙂
I love the facility of using the online dictionary. I don’t think a day goes by without me using one.
You got it Colline. We share a passion of words, and the online dictionary is one of the really good things about the Internet.
Cowgirl Rising? Sounds…ahem…like a hot read.
It does, but it’s an art book featuring the work of Donna Howell-Sickles. Look her up. I think you will love her work. It’s big, bold and colorful. In fact, I think I will put some up on my blog.