BBAW – Reading Meme

For this daily topic, I decided to answer two questions because I think they go hand in hand.  The questions are:

• How do you keep your place while reading a book? Bookmark? Dog-ears?
• Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of  writing in books horrify you?

I always credit my mother for my love of reading.  She always encouraged reading and discouraged watching television.  I have very fond memories of sitting at the kitchen table reading to my mother while she cooked supper.  We often discussed the book afterward.

My mother wasn’t the only person to encourage me to read, though.  The elementary school I attended had a fabulous librarian, who obviously loved children and books.  She opened the library before and after school and several mornings a week during the summer.  The librarian (I wish I could remember her name) emphasized respecting books and treating them like treasures and always told us to wash our hands before we handled a book.  Her words have stuck with me and to this day, I won’t mark in a book or dog ear its pages.  If I don’t have a bookmark handy, I’ll use any scrap of paper I can find.

I hung around the library so much in elementary school that the librarian finally put me to work.  I would shelve books, check books in and help straighten things up.  I can still remember the first time she let me check out a book for someone and I got to use the date stamp!  (Only readers of a certain age will know what I’m talking about.)

I don’t have a picture of that librarian, but I often wonder what she looked like.  In my mind, she was one of the most beautiful women in the world and I never wanted to disappoint her.