The women in the Book Club are few in number but they are avid readers. They devour books like I eat chocolate! The beginning, larger number of Bookers leveled out to 8 or so, with 4 being in attendance at our last meeting plus me. 3 of the 5 had read the Book Choice of the Month. I didn't read it. Again! and again....I made a promise to myself to read each book from now on!
What fascinates me are the women in attendance. I'm the fly on the wall! I label them all intellects. Brainiacs. Diverse interests. 3 early readers (before they even stepped their little feet into a school room). One was in a grocery store shopping basket, at age 3, and startled her Mother by reading the labeling on cereal boxes. Another was reading by age 4. 2 were raised with daily newspapers and lamented the fall and decline of real Journalism. All are interested in current events, past events and look forward to future events. They listen to each other and counsel each other by sharing what they've learned in life. They may have differing opinions but never debate or argue their unique individual take on life or the latest book on the list. They are connected by the love of reading books be it....paper, Internet, TV or the modern electronic gadgets they have!
Me? I, as my fellow Booker-gals, love to read! Grade school memories of getting a new book on the first day of school and being told to not skip ahead. Asking the teacher if I could take it home and then reading the entire book and hiding that fact. I also remember buying and having my own books and cherishing them. I still do!!
My Alaskan childhood was filled with a Mother who read me a chapter a night in Tales of Uncle Wiggly or the likes or poems at bedtime. Magazines and paperbacks in abundance were, oh, so Mother-tidy, in our home.
My Mother subscribed to the Women's magazines of the day. Better Homes & Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan (it was decent then!), Redbook, all pop into my mind. Oh, and Reader's Digest. There were also some Alaskan magazines plus Field & Stream and Popular Mechanic, that my Dad read. They both read paper backs also. Those I didn't read for some reason. I read all of the Alaskan magazines and my Mother's choices. (At that time Redbook- or was it Cosmopolitan?- had a novel printed in the back each month. I remember reading Rosemary's Baby as a girl and being shocked out of my mind when she peeked at her new baby! I never told Mother that I'd read it!)
Newspapers. We were outside of Anchorage in Spenard. Rough dirt roads. So definitely no home delivery! At some point news papers entered our home and they read the paper each day. A poignant detail, the day my Mother had her stroke, the Crossword puzzle from the morning paper, partially filled out from the day before, was spread out right on the kitchen table place mat, where she worked her puzzle each day.
I remember as a young newlywed subscribing to the Anchorage Daily Times. The editor was Bob Atwood and his daughter Elaine had been in my class. They had a house, downtown Anchorage, that was unlike all others. Some sort of stucco, pastel painted house with a miniature duplicate playhouse in the backyard. On our infrequent trips into town, we would pass that each time. My sister and I would eyeball it until it was out of view and talk envyingly- until our very practical Mother told us to... stop it.
The Atwoods eventually built a gigantic gorgeous log lodge-type house, on what was called "the bluff", in Turnagain Arms. Overlooking Cook Inlet with a gorgeous view of mountains. True, my parents by this time had also purchased a partially finished home, on the same bluff, a little further down the road. Ours was a split level, beautifully furnished, modern home but not of the type with maid quarters etc. This is where we also had the new fangled washer/dryer that only required we put the clothes in, add soap and push a button. And no clothesline- which we missed. How can you live without a clothesline??!
There is something very leveling, in more ways than one, when an earthquake occurs. The 1964 Alaskan super quake wiped out The Bluff. The split level, lived up to it's name and it's divided self, made the cover of Life magazine. Split right in half. We had moved Stateside earlier and the house had been sold but our hearts still owned it.
All this reminiscing about reading, ties right in, with one the many things I enjoy about my Church membership. I am intrigued with how much we are encouraged to do, to improve ourselves, even in the area of study. Starting with daily Scripture reading as a base and then.....
Doctrine & Covenants
88:118...seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith
88:78-79...that are expedient for you to understand;
Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; thing which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgements which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms--
90:15...and study and learn, and become acquainted with all good books, and with languages, tongues, and people.
130:18-19 Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
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