The Book Hound

Note: While most of my blog entries will be my thoughts about faith, I am also a book enthusiast, so there will be many posts related to books and my excitement for them. Thomas Jefferson once told John Adams, "I cannot live without books." I know how he felt.  -DL

Everyone who knows me knows my passion for books.  I feel at home around books. There is something so reliable about them, like a good friend, and like a good friend, a book will share with you what it knows and not expect anything in return (except for a nice place on your bookshelf).  I buy books whenever I can and a book store is a very dangerous place for me to be. Another weakness is the book sale; the biggest one we have coming up is the Holland Hall book sale on February 23rd.  At this book sale, I am among book lovers, like me, who are insane, like me, for books.  You must come prepared with a box, or a paper sack from the grocery store. The sack must have handles because it will fill up quickly and you have to tote it around while you look. They will let you "park" your bag of books in a corner of the auditorium where the sale is held where it will be protected by the watchful eye of a Holland Hall volunteer.  

It is not uncommon to be wadded among some other book lovers, competing for a place to look at the tables covered with books.  There are all kinds.  Of books and people. Some of them you will discover under a table rummaging around for a nifty find of a book.  I imagine some of these people have piles and piles of books in their homes leaking into their garages.  No matter. I understand them.  They are like me.  I have to careful about the piles though, my wife insists on a tidy house.  No problem.  The sale is coming on the 23rd, I will be there, and I will post my discoveries on this blog.  

I love my books.  The perfect life for me would be to own a little bookstore somewhere in Colorado where people would come in, say hello, have some coffee, browse around and sit in one of the cozy chairs in the corners to look at books.  What fun that would be.  

I enjoy history and biography, in addition to my interest in faith based books.  I have so many books that I haven't read yet. Really great stuff, too. A biography and collected writings of Ben Franklin, several books on Abraham Lincoln, David McCullough’s excellent 1776 and several other McCullough books. He is recognized as the historian's historian.  Read one of his books and you will know why.  His biography of Harry Truman is considered the standard and the best book about Truman.  McCullough's writing and story-telling (which is what history really is), is absolutely superb. If you ever get a chance to hear McCullough speak, you must go.  You will leave with a greater appreciation for history, our country and the characters involved. 

I am reading an excellent biography of fiction author Richard Yates (I’m two-thirds the way through it. He is best-known for Revolutionary Road (1961), Bill Bennett’s excellent America: The Last Best Hope (I’m three-quarters of the way through Volume 1; Volume 2 was released last year. Bennett's writing is as good as McCullough's), collections of poetry and essays, a collection of Thomas Jefferson’s favorite poems, Robert Lowell’s complete poems, numerous books on JFK, and an increasingly large collection of books on faith and Christianity.  My biggest purchase of books on Christianity so far is the Complete Sermons of Martin Luther.  I have thumbed through the first volume (there are 7) and it is just excellent.  The number of books available on Christianity (really on anything) is just enormous.  How on earth do I read them all?  There is so much to know and learn.     

I have also been particularly interested in old books.  I have a book called Self Understanding by Seward Hiltner, published in 1951. The binding is in pretty bad shape, but the book is still together.  It’s about the relationship between psychology and religion; it’s a though provoking book.  It came from a library in Joplin, Missouri.  The Joplin Carnegie Library.  The book is marked “discarded.”  I wonder if the library is still there.  I wonder how many hands have touched this book.

Two other old books I found are just fun to have.  One is called The Literature of the American People, edited by Arthur Hobson Quinn, also published in 1951, and it is a great collection of writing.  The other is Dominant Types in British and American Literature, edited by William Davenport, Lowry Wimberly, and Harry Shaw.  It was published in 1949 and after I got it home, I discovered it was signed by Mr. Davenport.  Signed books are especially fun and exciting.  It is two volumes in one hefty book and covers everything: poetry, drama, essay, biography, and fiction.  I was particularly drawn to the writings on poetry, essays, and biographies, my key interests in literature.  Both of these books aren’t exactly the “cover-to-cover” kind of read, but they are fun to just grab off the shelf, thumb through to the first page that looks interesting and start reading.  Great stuff, and great books to own.  I found these in a great little used bookstore, McHuston Books, in Broken Arrow, OK.   

It makes me happy to see people wandering through bookstores.  There are still people who enjoy turning the pages of a great book.  I noticed that most of the people in bookstores these days seem to be older, late 30’s to 40’s and up, but there are still some young people milling about. Hopefully the Harry Potter rage of past years will keep those young readers coming back for more.