“B, b, what begins with b? Barber, baby, bubbles and a bumblebee” This snippet of awesomeness is Dr. Seuss, quoted from his alphabet book. I can still chant the entire volume front to back from memory, having read it and reread it, first to my tiny daughters and then to my equally tiny grandchildren. Aren’t books wonderfully re-readable? I have favourite books that I read once a year or every few years. In 2021 I read Silas Marner three times! I found it such a comfort; how he is crushed, numb with despair but gradually emerges into the light of love, his faith destroyed and then reformed aright.
And I’ve read LM Montgomery literally dozens of times over the years. I wish I had to write a term paper on her view of war and how it shifted right along with public sentiment from the First to Second World War. And her commentary on the role of women in society is worth discussing at length.
Some books have aged right along with me, their message morphing. When I first read Elizabeth Von Arnim’s Enchanted April in my 20’s it grated on my romantic sensibilities. Where was the passion!! But when I reread it years later I laughed and laughed. How clever the author was. How witty and charming and hopeful and redeeming her view of love!
Books, some books especially, have been my companions for years and years and have helped me through some perilous times,.
“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” Psalm 119:105
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