Hi Tongchun,
I'm completely behind you about buying the bookcase. I'm also happy to learn that you're also a booklover, like myself. :-)
Uncle Ben and I have a good reference library of our own. We have collected books for more than the 49 years of our marriage. We both had books before, and we
both inherited books from our families. You can imagine that we have thousands
of books, and you would be right!
A bookcase is such a treasure. Don't worry about your books and your bookcase.
Just enjoy them. Remember, some day you will have your own home and to it you
will contribute those bookcases, and many books. Your child will grow up with books around, and see his parents reading. Your child will want to be like you,
and become a reader, too. That's the way it works. All of our children are readers, and we are, too, because that is what we both learned in our families. Both of my brothers are readers, and can you imagine, Canuck, my little brother, has already collected 600 English books in China. I can assure you that he has bookcases! ;-)
I read that the great libraries in the USA are putting their books on discs and
when the job has been done they are getting rid of the books. That is the kind
of thing that makes me nervous. In bad time there have been the burning of books, too. What if the power fails and you can't read the converted books? Iprefer to always have a well thought out library of my own.
As for you, friend Paul, I can see that you are a hearty extrovert. You like to
get active and do things, and to be with people a lot. Well, as for me, I'm more of an introvert. I like people well enough, but I love quiet, a cup of tea,
and my chair by a sunny window, and a good book. The way you can tell an
extrovert from an introvert is said to be this: an extrovert gets more energy from being with people and loses it when alone. An introvert is the oppposite, he loses energy when with people, and regains it when he's alone. You can think
about yourself and find out which kind you are. We need both kinds. We couldn'
t do without both kinds, and both kinds need each other, for the world to go around right. Just as we need both men and women, we need both introverts and extroverts.
If I am ill and can't go to the public library, then I read my own books. It is
very convenient to be able to check things as I think of them and not to need to wait until I can go to the library. Some of the books I have were read by Canuck and me and our brother when we were young children. I have those books called "Books of Knowledge." They were bought by our father the year before I was born so that they would be there for us. I still use them, to this day, but I must say that the science is a little dated!
Congratulations on your love of books, dear Tongchun, and as long as you know what truly interests you, or you may need to know in future, then buy books as you
can afford them. They are treasures. What if something happened and we
couldn't get books any more. What if more and more they are superseded and wefind it hard to buy them any more. I used to go to a recycling place where I could buy books for a very low price, that had been sent to be recycled. Now that
place is gone because the books are simply recycled in a big factory. Recycling has become so big now that it isn't practical to do it on a small scale where
used books could be bought by individuals. Maybe some of the used book stores can get some of them.
I buy a lot of my books at the library. Hard cover books cost $1.00 each. Soft
covers are 50 cents, and magazines are all 10 cents. People donate books they
don't want any more or books from estates, church libraries, and so on. I always find wonderful bargains in splendid books there. I read many of what I have,
consult many more, and have the rest for when I want them. Lovely!!!!
Many of the television programs are losing quality. Lots of magazines have been
drastically cheapened and aren't what they once were. Even books aren't constructed as they were when most books were either leather or cloth bound. Now they
often have cheap cardboard type covers. Some of the writing is equally poor.
What about the style of historical novel that takes famous names and builds fictional stories around them, including fictional lives for them. I don't want to
read such novels because I don't want to get false history mixed up with what actually occurred. It is one way to rewrite history and to dumb people down, isn'
t it? Television is dumbing people down. As for me, I don't intend to become uninformed and dumbed down. People who are dumbed down can easily lose their freedom. Books are the way to go, friend Tongchun. You're on the right track. Now stay on it. ;-))
Warmly, Mary
