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First, kudos, FL Mary: holding a real book in your hand is not only a great way to read, but keeps those of us who work to publish books working! I just finished "A Wolf Called Romeo" by Nick Jans, who writes a column in every issue of "Alaska" magazine. Nick has a great appreciation for and understanding of the natural world. Romeo lived almost in Juneau, taking time to play with certain local dogs. Nick also wrote a very fair book about Timothy Treadwell, who wanted to become "one" with bears...and eventually did so, as he and his girlfriend were consumed by the very bears they had lived with for several seasons. My husband's parents emigrated to Alaska in 1948; my husband turned a year old during the six-week drive to get there. We've both spent lots of time fishing in Alaska, plus Marty's entire family still lives in Anchorage--when Marty learned that he could fish for steelhead in western Oregon year round, he moved here and has stayed. We live in the woods close to the Pacific, in what's close to a wildlife sanctuary. I'm currently designing a book about the High Sierra for a client and just starting to write and design a book about the wild little river where I've collected data for the past 29 years. When we moved out of the city into this house I've now owned for 60 years, I learned that a book designer should never move: I gave away a big truckload of books but still packed over 100 cases of them, carried them out to the truck or trailer, then up into the loft here. I'm never moving again! We were evacuated due to a forest fire a year ago...I picked out the 10 most valuable collectible fly rods and grabbed lots of original fishing art off our walls--but I totally failed to pack any of the first edition books personally autographed by authors thanking me for my work! Had we been evacuated last summer, I was much better prepared.
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@joyces
We have such interesting people here on the Mayo forum and you are definitely one of them. I have listed A Wolf Called Romeo as my next read. It reminds me of Gorillas In the Mist. I like stories about interspecies relationships. But, as the life of Timothy Treadwell shows, other species will generally revert to their natural born instincts and not all of these interspecies relationships end on a happy note. That also applies to some domesticated animals so reasonable safety precautions are a must.
I have had to give away books simply because I ran out of room. When I lived in Long Island , we had bookcases full in several rooms besides my husbands scientific journals and books. I donated his to a local college when he passed away.
Now that I live in such a smaller house and I find books starting to pile up on the floor ((I use that look as a decor statement lol),
I have to pass on or donate. I have bought far too many at our library’s book sale…how could you not?. Especially if you can fill a bag for a couple of dollars.
I don’t think libraries will ever go out of existence as there are so many activities going on in them. I am happy to see so many people who do read (although many of them are older) and there are so many many books on the “hold” shelf.
My children always liked to read and still do to this day. My grandchildren don’t and I remember how torturous if was for my granddaughter to “get through” assigned books in school. I used to read with her and so many of her books were really really boring I wasn’t surprised that she got turned off. The other grandkids, despite their aversion to reading (and they are all young adults) did emerge into adulthood with excellent writing skills and a “way with words” My son and daughter and one of my grandsons are so eloquent in their social media postings so something right happened along the way.
One thing I still do and always insisted my kids and grandkids do is to look up an unfamiliar word even if you can get the meaning from the sentence. I forget sometimes what a particular word means and still look it up…now I can just goggle it lol.
Here’s to books and civilization!
FL Mary