Blow Your Mind

Christine from Write-Brained had a Wordless Wednesday post on her blog recently that showed someone reading a book titled ‘The Power of Books’, which, literally, blew the reader’s mind.

I found it a disturbing picture but obviously it has stuck in my mind.

I am exhausted this week because I have been rereading Harry Potter. The power of the words laid down by author Jk Rowling has kept me up way past my bedtime each night and stopped me from doing anything other then the necessities when it comes to home upkeep.

The power of books is also obvious when I have recently quoted passages from a book I read when I was a preteen.

I have no idea what this book was called but I believe it had Brooklyn in the title. It was huge, thousands of pages. I have a vague idea what it was about but there was a part in it that I still remember – vividly.

The woman’s child wouldn’t stop breastfeeding so she drew a scary face on her breast and when her five-year-old son lifted up her shirt to help himself, he saw the face, screamed, and ran away. I would imagine that child is still in therapy.

I have cried, laughed out loud, snorted in disbelief and worried with the books I have read.

I believe in the power of books.

Here are a couple books you should read:

On the Beach by Neville Shute
Onyx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel
Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
The Haunting at Cliff House by Karleen Bradford (YA)

Beautiful Library

Christina from Write-Brained mentioned in a recent post about her desire to have a library to showcase her books.

My dream was to have a Disney’s Beauty and the Beast library.

The library in that Disney classic was two stories with shelves and shelves of books and a ladder that slid the perimeter of the room so you could get to those classics on the upper shelves.

I don’t have a ladder, but I do have a library designed by me and built by my talented husband.

To clarify, I found a picture of a library I wanted and my husband did the rest.

The end result is a library that covers the entire wall of our living room with shelves and shelves of my favourite books, knick-knacks and picture frames, and cupboards that hold scrapbooking and craft materials, my son’s toys, cookbooks, vases and gadgets.

There are three beautiful glass shelves and pot lighting to accent some of my favourite things – Classic Pooh book ends that are keeping my Lucy Maud Montgomery books together; my Lisa collectable doll, figurines and tins; flowers from the party after our Caribbean wedding.

Originally, some of the shelves held my Disney VHS collection and other DVDs. But when we moved the TV downstairs, it made sense the movies should follow.

I also wanted to bring out and display my journals.

So my husband moved a few shelves and I recently reorganized the library’s contents. I now find myself sitting on the couch and staring at I my beautiful library, my wonderful books, my good-looking family and my precious ‘stuff.’