Favorite books
22/02/25 02:35
Friends,
I am sorry that my journal entry was posted late yesterday. I failed to notice that it didn't upload properly until my wife reported that it wasn't up after I came home from errands around noon. I'll try to avoid that mistake in the future.
Our oldest grandson, who turned 14 this month on the day after his grandmother’s birthday, wrote in a birthday card to her, “What is your favorite book? I would like to read it.” Although the question was posed to my wife, who will come up with some great reading suggestions, it got me thinking. What is my favorite book?
That question is a definite challenge for me. I could say, “The Bible,” but it doesn’t function as a single book but as a collection. I read Isaiah and the Psalms more than other books in the Hebrew Scriptures. I have read and studied Genesis a lot, but Leviticus isn’t a book that one sits down and reads cover to cover. OK, I’ve done it, but only once. In the New Testament, I’ve read the Gospels many, many times, and I’m familiar with all of them. When asked by someone to whom the Bible is unfamiliar, I often say, “Read the Gospel of Mark first.” It is short and has a definite motion towards the crucifixion, which keeps the story going. I have also recommended that people read Jonah because it is a brief narrative story with several unexpected plot twists.
But I read a lot of other books. I love reading books. There are a lot that I count as favorites. Writers as diverse as David Sedaris, Elie Wiesel, Sherman Alexie, and Jess Walter are loved by me, and I find myself checking their titles on each trip to the library. I’ve read most of what they have written, and several of their books have been worth reading a second and third time.
A fourteen-year-old is old enough to read Night by Elie Wiesel, but I want to ensure we had time to discuss it as he read. There are a couple of Sherman Alexie short stories that I would quickly recommend, but some of his writing doesn’t seem entirely age-appropriate. It would be fair to say that The Idle Beekeeper by Bill Anderson is a favorite of mine, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who isn’t interested in keeping domestic honeybees. I would easily recommend First You Have to Row a Little Boat by Richard Bode to teens and adults, and it is certainly a book I’ve read multiple times.
I don’t think I could narrow it down to a single favorite book.
I frequently grab Go Dog Go as a favorite to read aloud for my three-year-old grandson. I’ve read it to our grandchildren so often that they can all exchange lines from the book from memory. That is one of the things that makes the book so much fun to read to our three-year-old. Even when we don’t have the book, if I say “Big dog,” he says, “Little dog.” I’ll say, “Hello,” and he’ll say, “Hello.” I say, “Do you like my hat?” and he responds, “I do not.” Every child loves the one dog who is awake when all the others are sleeping and then asleep when it is time to get up. And what can be better than chase scenes and romance that ends with a big party? I read that book over and over to our children and our grandchildren as well.
But our grandchildren also introduced me to other books that became beloved. I had never read Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons until a month ago. Our youngest grandson loves the book so much and has checked it out of the library so many times that we bought a copy for him for his birthday. He has that book wholly memorized. We don’t even need to get the book at our house now. He and I can tell the entire story from memory. When Pete loses a button, I say, “Did Pete cry?” and our grandson says, “Goodness, No! Buttons come, and buttons go!”
Last night, my favorite books were The Rabbit Listens and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. If someone were to be unfamiliar with that book and overhear me reading them to our grandson, they might think that the last line of each book was “Again!” I’m sure I read both of those books at least five times last night. They have to count as favorites.
One of the treasures of being a grandpa is that I have time to read a book repeatedly. When our children were little, I often had so many things to do that after I had read a book once or twice, I might say, “All done!” and go on to another task. With grandchildren, I often can reread a book over and over. Last night, his father had to say, “All done!” so they could go home for their bedtime routines, which I’m sure included reading a few more books.
Grandchildren grow up so quickly from the perspective of their grandparents. It seems like the first was just born, but I’m down to only two of the five who are small enough to sit on my lap while we read books. The fourteen-year-old will still hug me but doesn’t crawl into my chair with me. Since time with the children is so important and fleeting, I try to take advantage of every opportunity. I keep my poetry books next to my chair for myself, but I also keep the children’s books next to the same chair. You never know when you’ll need The Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham.
It is still four months until my birthday, and it is unlikely that our grandson will write the same thing on a card to me that he wrote to his grandmother, but I keep pondering the question nonetheless. I want to make a good recommendation when he asks me. His father is a librarian and makes a lot of excellent suggestions for him. They have enjoyed reading and discussing science fiction for several years and have gotten me to read some books I might not have otherwise read. I’ll keep thinking. Being able to share favorite books with others is a blessing.
I am sorry that my journal entry was posted late yesterday. I failed to notice that it didn't upload properly until my wife reported that it wasn't up after I came home from errands around noon. I'll try to avoid that mistake in the future.
Our oldest grandson, who turned 14 this month on the day after his grandmother’s birthday, wrote in a birthday card to her, “What is your favorite book? I would like to read it.” Although the question was posed to my wife, who will come up with some great reading suggestions, it got me thinking. What is my favorite book?
That question is a definite challenge for me. I could say, “The Bible,” but it doesn’t function as a single book but as a collection. I read Isaiah and the Psalms more than other books in the Hebrew Scriptures. I have read and studied Genesis a lot, but Leviticus isn’t a book that one sits down and reads cover to cover. OK, I’ve done it, but only once. In the New Testament, I’ve read the Gospels many, many times, and I’m familiar with all of them. When asked by someone to whom the Bible is unfamiliar, I often say, “Read the Gospel of Mark first.” It is short and has a definite motion towards the crucifixion, which keeps the story going. I have also recommended that people read Jonah because it is a brief narrative story with several unexpected plot twists.
But I read a lot of other books. I love reading books. There are a lot that I count as favorites. Writers as diverse as David Sedaris, Elie Wiesel, Sherman Alexie, and Jess Walter are loved by me, and I find myself checking their titles on each trip to the library. I’ve read most of what they have written, and several of their books have been worth reading a second and third time.
A fourteen-year-old is old enough to read Night by Elie Wiesel, but I want to ensure we had time to discuss it as he read. There are a couple of Sherman Alexie short stories that I would quickly recommend, but some of his writing doesn’t seem entirely age-appropriate. It would be fair to say that The Idle Beekeeper by Bill Anderson is a favorite of mine, but I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who isn’t interested in keeping domestic honeybees. I would easily recommend First You Have to Row a Little Boat by Richard Bode to teens and adults, and it is certainly a book I’ve read multiple times.
I don’t think I could narrow it down to a single favorite book.
I frequently grab Go Dog Go as a favorite to read aloud for my three-year-old grandson. I’ve read it to our grandchildren so often that they can all exchange lines from the book from memory. That is one of the things that makes the book so much fun to read to our three-year-old. Even when we don’t have the book, if I say “Big dog,” he says, “Little dog.” I’ll say, “Hello,” and he’ll say, “Hello.” I say, “Do you like my hat?” and he responds, “I do not.” Every child loves the one dog who is awake when all the others are sleeping and then asleep when it is time to get up. And what can be better than chase scenes and romance that ends with a big party? I read that book over and over to our children and our grandchildren as well.
But our grandchildren also introduced me to other books that became beloved. I had never read Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons until a month ago. Our youngest grandson loves the book so much and has checked it out of the library so many times that we bought a copy for him for his birthday. He has that book wholly memorized. We don’t even need to get the book at our house now. He and I can tell the entire story from memory. When Pete loses a button, I say, “Did Pete cry?” and our grandson says, “Goodness, No! Buttons come, and buttons go!”
Last night, my favorite books were The Rabbit Listens and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. If someone were to be unfamiliar with that book and overhear me reading them to our grandson, they might think that the last line of each book was “Again!” I’m sure I read both of those books at least five times last night. They have to count as favorites.
One of the treasures of being a grandpa is that I have time to read a book repeatedly. When our children were little, I often had so many things to do that after I had read a book once or twice, I might say, “All done!” and go on to another task. With grandchildren, I often can reread a book over and over. Last night, his father had to say, “All done!” so they could go home for their bedtime routines, which I’m sure included reading a few more books.
Grandchildren grow up so quickly from the perspective of their grandparents. It seems like the first was just born, but I’m down to only two of the five who are small enough to sit on my lap while we read books. The fourteen-year-old will still hug me but doesn’t crawl into my chair with me. Since time with the children is so important and fleeting, I try to take advantage of every opportunity. I keep my poetry books next to my chair for myself, but I also keep the children’s books next to the same chair. You never know when you’ll need The Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham.
It is still four months until my birthday, and it is unlikely that our grandson will write the same thing on a card to me that he wrote to his grandmother, but I keep pondering the question nonetheless. I want to make a good recommendation when he asks me. His father is a librarian and makes a lot of excellent suggestions for him. They have enjoyed reading and discussing science fiction for several years and have gotten me to read some books I might not have otherwise read. I’ll keep thinking. Being able to share favorite books with others is a blessing.
