#BookADay Days 5-8: Owning, Borrowing, Gifting

Catching up on the #BookADay challenge posted by Borough Press since I last posted on Day 4. (Today’s prompt, Day 9, will follow later today.)

Day 5 – Doesn’t Belong to Me.

I confess. I am a library reader. I could never afford by 100 books a year reading habit if I purchased all the books I read. In this, I am very blessed to have the resources of the Berwyn Public Library and especially its Readers Advisory Department. They faithfully order books, recommend titles and even place advance holds on my favorite authors. They literally keep me in books.

I do, however, have one book that fits this prompt. More than 10 years ago, I was chatting with a friend about on old title I’d like to re-read, assuming she wouldn’t know it. I told her Geek Love was my all-time favorite circus book. She brightened immediately and told me it was hers too. She lent me her copy and somehow I never managed to return it.

I don’t see Terri anymore, but every time I see this book (with her maiden name neatly penned on the inside cover) I remember the joy of having such an incredible woman in my life. We were both new moms and avid readers.  (I also think that I should really drive by her house and return her book!)

 

Day 6 – The One I Always Give as a Gift

I love to gift books, but it’s always a very personal and emotional choice in the moment. Very few titles fit more than one person for any occasion or holiday. But recently I’ve had the pleasure of attending two book-themed baby showers. I gave both moms-to-be board book copies of Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown.

I am sure I read this book more than any other when my sons were babies. I still can recite the first fw pages by memory and find both the words and illustrations incredibly soothing as a bedtime book.

 

Day 7 – Forgot I Owned

See Day 5 for my lack of book ownership, but I do think there might be a box buried in my basement filled with long-forgotten titles. I know I had a slim, bound-edition of a speech given by Maya Angelou. I can’t remember the occasion but I can remember reading it and wishing I could know her in real life.  I wish I could lay my hands on that.

 

Day 8 – Have more than one copy

Again, see Day 5. I am sure, however, that when my husband and I combined our properties almost 15 years ago, we both brought to our home copies of The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. Our modern-day reading tastes differ a great deal, but we share a love of these classics.