What I Love Most Today is the Bookstore

I love the bookstore.  I could spend, what seems, the rest of my life in a bookstore; and so could my kids.  Reece asked if we could make a trip to such a place this evening because he and Gwyneth have gift cards to spend.  All of my kids love to read.  There are varying degrees of love, but nonetheless they all really enjoy books.  We've always made it a point to read to the kids.  With our first three children I would read to them, almost everyday, from a book of abridged Children's classics.  It had stories like, Treasure Island, Call of the Wild, and Anne of Green Gables.  At the time, Reece was probably three or four and he would have me read Call of the Wild over and over because he loved the dogs so much.  Such sweet memories of us snuggled together on the couch relaxing and reading.  

Fast forward a few years and it's not quite the same.  It's harder to find quieter, relaxing moments to read to the kids, since there are so many of them.  Currently most of the reading to the kids happens in the evenings, with the youngest at bedtime.  My mom didn't do much reading with me but I can remember one book she read to me at night from time to time and that was Harold and the Purple Crayon.  I love Harold!  My mom gave me a copy of the Harold stories in one book, shortly after Kalen was born, and I made sure all of my kids would love him too, and they do.  I just read Harold and the Circus, the other night to Summer.  Kirk and I still read to the older kids too.  Early on we wanted to make this a tradition, so for years we have read our scriptures and then follow up with our "family novel."  Right now Kirk is reading "Rise of the Guardians" (the final book) to the older children.  They have loved this series.  

There is something so wonderful about seeing young kids read.  I love it.  I didn't read much as a kid, at all.  I always felt like I would rather be playing with something or being with friends.  The thought of sitting with a book seemed lonely.  Although, I did love to read magazines.  By the time I was Gwyneth's age, so around 12, I would save any money I got from babysitting to get the latest Vogue, Bizarre, YM (young and modern), Elle and any other fashion magazine I could get my hands on.  This is when they were about $2.50.  I loved anything to do with models, fashion and the like.  I would read those magazines cover to cover.  It wasn't the most appropriate material for that age but I loved it.  I guess my mom didn't realize I should have been reading Anne of Green Gables?  :) :)  

I remember being in the local drug store one evening with my mom.  I wandered off to get my routine magazine only to find a new one called "Top Model."  At the time, Claudia Schiffer  was my favorite model.  She was on the cover of and it was all about her from childhood on.  I snatched it right up.  They only produced about six issues of this magazine and I had them all.  When I went off to college and left Southern California, my mom kept my room back home, the same, for a long time.   In the corner of it I had this skinny pink bookshelf that housed my hundreds of magazines.  One day I called to check in and she told me she had bagged all of my magazines and tossed them!  So sad, I was devastated.  Sometime last year,out of curiosity I went on Ebay to look up that Top Model magazine and it was selling for upwards of $250.00, because there were so few made.  So funny.  

I loved fashion when I was younger and I still do.  Something my mom taught me was to look my best at all times.  It's not something she ever told me, it's something she lived.  It's so interesting how we have our struggles in life, yet there are certain things that are very important to us.  I'll never forget sitting on the end of my mom's bed watching her get dressed every morning for work.  When it rained she would put on these tall suede boots. And to protect them from the rain she had these plastic type of protectors that slid over the boot.  I just remember that I loved watching her put these on.  My Grandma Pat always taught me the same.  

  When I was younger she was a professor of Geography and Mathematics at UCLA.  Sometimes my dad would take me to see her lecture and I we would sit in the back of the lecture hall.  I remember the first Apple computers sitting on the tables.  But, my grandma always looked so chic.  I would visit their house often, as a matter of fact I lived with her and my grandpa for a while when I was little.  When I went to her house the first thing I would do was walk by her little candy dish, grab a few little German raspberry candies that she always had and then head up to her room.  She had what seemed an enormous closet and one side of the wall was lined with high heels galore.  She always kept the shoes she purchased in their original box and she would place something in each high heel so that when she wasn't wearing them they would keep their shape.  I would be in her closet for hours, trying on all of her fancy high heels.  

For Christmas I'm asking for the book above called, "The Lost Art of Dress."  It's seems so fascinating.  Part of it tries to examine why American women have lost their ability, motivation and "know how" to dress their bodies so that they look chic and beautiful.  If it were up to me women would go out in public in the cutest skirts and dresses.  But this is just my opinion.  :) These are the kinds of books I love to read.  I also love anything to do with Photography these days.  

When I'm trying to develop a talent I love getting my hands on anything that might help me with it.  I love photography but the learning curve is steep, in so many ways.  I find myself constantly asking, what do I want to focus on?  How can I break out of the mold and photograph from a unique perspective?  I was reading this book last night.  Each page was a photograph done by a celebrated photographer and a little interview with insight as to what moved them to photograph the certain things they chose.  This particular photographer said, "The world is going to hell in a handcart and our liberties are going with it.  It to me that there's nothing else worth talking about.  I don't really choose the subjects I photograph, I think they choose themselves.  They walk in and sit down in the armchair and they demand to be discussed."  This reminds me of my dad.  

  

When I did finally start to read and become more interested in books it was because of my dad.  When I said in another post that my daughter was "the most well read person I knew," that was a bit of an exaggeration because it's got to be my dad.  He's been taking me to bookstores since I can remember.  Some of my fondest memories are of going to the city of San Francisco with him to visit little infamous bookstores tucked away in unassuming streets of the city.  Bookstores that were not like the big chains.  My dad is moved by current events, politics and everything else under the sun, but particularly with politics.  And he would go to these independent bookstores because he could find books there that the big chains wouldn't sell.

As a matter of fact one of the first books I read was given to me by him.  It was called "The Hot Zone."  It was a book about the first outbreak of Ebola.  This was back in the late 80's early 90's.  The virus was first discovered in Africa.  The book explored the exhausting details of how a few people traced this frightening and deadly disease, the politics of an unorganized, third world country and the obstacles they went through to isolate the disease.  Back in 1994 when they first discovered this disease nobody survived from it.  I was never the same after that book.  It gave me a passion for politics and the world around me.  I chose to study politics in college.  

As a matter of fact I am learning to quilt along with all of the other things I have going on.  I only spend a little time on it here and there, because it's all I can do, but I love it.  I signed up to take a quilting class starting February 2nd, 2015.  I've been told that once I take this class I will be able to quilt anything.  I'm sold.  The quilt I am currently working on is so pretty I can't wait for it to be done, but I just don't have a lot of time for it.  

I'm also passionate about my family and I've read most books by Steven Covey.  He wrote "The 7 habits of highly effective families," which I refer to often.  It's a great book and I highly recommend it.  This is written by his son and I have no doubt it will be great.  It's on my list of things to do/read.  :)

I love anything by Malcolm Gladwell.  I don't take his books too seriously but nonetheless, they are very interesting and insightful.  

 I've decided I love photography because I love trying to capture nuances.  Taking pictures of kids and families is so popular today and I'm jumping right on that band wagon.  But, something I really want to strive for is capturing what makes a child the way they are, or capturing some nuance about what gives a particular family the culture they have created.  That is in part the reason I chose to photograph Shane and Summer in their dress ups.  It's because right now that's who they are.  They live to play dress up and pretend.  

 The bookstore doesn't just have books it has cute, fluffy, adorable, stuffed animals that my kids fall in love with and beg me to take home. :)

My kids would also buy every journal they could get there hands on if they could.  We have so many journals in this house.  And truthfully they are used weather it be for drawing or writing...or scribbling. 

I had most of these Golden Books when I was little.  So many memories.  

As far as I can tell this is a new book on the market and it's hilarious!  I suggest it to anyone big or small who wants a great laugh.  

Corduroy is one of my favorites too.  I've been reading these books to my kids for years.  I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of most our children's books because just looking at them brings a flood of some of my fondest memories with each of my kids.  

Books are incredible.  Being a mom of seven children and in the throws of raising them, exploring books reminds me of who I am, besides a mom.  It gives me a reminder of my passions, the things I want to learn about and become.  I love being a mom and I always will be, but I'm full of ideas and books let me learn how to take my ideas and make them into more than just ideas.  What I Love Most Today is the Bookstore.