A Bookish Life In AK

My parents instilled a love of books and reading in me that only grew as I got older.

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I have always always loved books and reading.I was that kid who always had a book with her, still do, by the way. My parents encouraged it, it probably kept me out of a bit of trouble. I did get in trouble with books though too. I was the kid who had her book hidden inside her other books. I remember getting in trouble in High School for reading when I should have been doing my practice for Cosmetology. Still surprised I passed and got my license with that, LOL.

One of my earliest memories is of my mom taking me to the library in Rantoul, Illinois when I was in the first or second grade. I know that my mom read to me before that, but that is the first library I can remember. That is also the first school library I remember, Maplewood Elementary school. I remember my libraries when my family moved to England, I grew up in the Air Force. I would ride the shuttle bus from one base to the other to go to the library and I would be there for hours. That was where I found that I enjoyed all different types of books. It was were I read Dave Barry at 13 and thought he was hilarious. I read my first Stephen King novel and short stories at at the base library, I am still afraid of open closet doors and the Boogie-Man, not to mention spiders coming out of the sink. I remember eating lunch in High School and then going to the library and either reading or helping the librarian. When I would get in trouble, my parents would have to ground me from my books and the library, because if I wasn’t with my friends, I was reading.

My dad had me look up Douglas Adams and “The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy.” I fell in love with Sci-Fi and Fantasy at that moment. I still have my set of “Little House on The Prairie” that I was given at Christmas, my own children read them when we homeschooled. My Aunt Nola gave me a gorgeous copy of “Anne of Green Gables” when I was 10 years old that I wish I still had. My parents would always make sure I had money for at least 1 book when the Scholastic book fair was at school or we got those papers sent home. I think that’s how I collected the entire set of “Babysitter’s Club” and “Sweet Valley Twins” and “Sweet Valley High” books. I devoured the entire “Nancy Drew” series.

When I got into high school, I kept reading. It was mostly Stephen King and horrible romance novels, and of course the V.C Andrews series. I think I read “Flowers In the Attic” 5 or 6 times. I would read everything I could get my hands on, I still do for the most part. I am a little more picky now.

When we would fly back to the States, I packed 2-3 books because I’d read them on the flights and have to buy 2-3 more while driving around. I remember my parents stopping at different Walmarts across the country because I’d finish a book on a road trip. On our cruise back in June, I finished 2 books and just had to stop at Books-A-Million to grab a couple new ones. My husband and I have started a new tradition of buying a new book every time we go through the Seattle Airport, generally once or twice a year. They have a cute little bookstore there in C Gate. As a matter of fact, just the last time I went to Anchorage, I finished one book and had picked up 2 more. One from Title Wave, a great used bookstore, and one from Barnes and Noble.

When we started having kids, I made sure to read to them every day at least once, usually at either nap time or at bed time. I think I went through 4 copies of “Goodnight Moon.” My children grew up having books around. When we homeschooled them, it was mostly literature based learning. If I could find a book about what we were learning, I would choose that over a textbook any day. Companies like Well Trained Press, SonLight, BookShark and Beautiful Feet were my go to. As well as Ambleside and Old Fashioned Education, they used Project Gutenberg for free books if I couldn’t find them in the library. We would read aloud everyday. Between listening to them reading, I would read out loud every day at lunch. Do you know how much easier it is to read to kids while they’re eating? Their mouths are to busy chewing LOL. I read to them all from 2000 till 2017 when we bought our house I had to go to back to work. Yes, they were teenagers and I still read aloud. We started out with “Little Bear” and “Winnie the Pooh” and I think the last book we read was “The Lost World” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Reading also got me through depression. When I ended up with postpartum depression with not 1 but 2 of my babies, reading got me through it. The doctors would just wouldn’t help, or they would prescribe meds that made it worse. However, my mom sent me Tracie Peterson’s book series “The Heirs of Montana” and I read them through several times. This is also when I discovered Christian Fiction and started reading more faith based books. They helped my faith, as did my husband and the MOPS group in North Pole, Ak.

To this day, my parents still send me books, and I send them to my grown kids no longer at home. You could say books are our families love language. When someone is feeling down I send a book or a book recommendation. When someone os happy, I have a great book for them. I love to give books as much as receiving them.

Links for some of the books: Tracie Peterson’s “Heirs Of Montana” https://amzn.to/3QzX3qj Sir Arthur Cone Doyle, “The Lost World” https://amzn.to/46Njjmw A.A. Milne “Winnie the Pooh” https://amzn.to/3QiyyN2 Norton Juster “Phantom Tollbooth” https://amzn.to/3FCcZ5m Douglas Adams “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” https://amzn.to/3tVRqdu

What have been some of your books that have been with you through your life?

Prayers and Blessings, Becky