For the Love of Books

Recently I've been re-reading some of my favortie books from childhood, most notably the Ramona Quimby books by Beverly Cleary.

As I've read the adventures of Ramona, Beezus, Henry, Picky-picky (the Quimby Cat), Howie, Yard-Ape (my favorite) and Willa Jean, I've remembered how much I loved reading when I was a kid. I remember seeking out these book in the Eisenhower Elementary School library and Ms. Godwin the libraian saving the new Ramona book for me when it came in, because I loved Ramona books and Beverly Cleary so much.

I discovered recently that Beverly Cleary, over the couse of her writing career, which spans over 50 years, has sold almost as many book as JK Rowling has, and that her books have never gone out of print. She is still alive, and over 90 years old, Pretty amazing!

She also wrote a two part auto-bigraphy, A Girl From Yamhill about her early childhood and growing up in Portland and My Own Two Feet about her life as a college student in California during the Great Depression. Both of these books were amazing reads! Beverly Cleary is Ramona Quimby, and alot of her own feelings of childhood and experiences went into the books she wrote.

I loved both parts of the biography, and once I picked them up, I could not stop. I read both in about 2 days. If you can find them in the library, check them out, and read them -- it will be time well spent!

Harry Potter Madness

Harry Potter rules!

It was a race to the finish, but I finished first. Marie finished second and Mom came in at third. Joseph is still listening to the audio book. I kept telling him to invent an audio port to hook up to my brain so he could listen as fast as I read. The four of us spent the weekend wandering from room to room with our copies of the book, dodging kids, barbie dolls and Dil--who wanted to just bug us. James totally cheated. He's not ever read one letter of the books, but he picked up my copy from the table, flipped to the back page and read the ending. Well have to stupify him next time! Of course in the end Guen gets the real gold star, she was done Saturday night. She always was the fastest read in the family.

In the really end, end Marie wondered what will bind us all together? What will we wait for now? Mere said that I shouldn't finish the book as there would be no more to come. Very wise for a 7yo. I guess we can only hope George Lucas makes more Star Wars, JRR Tolkien somehow comes back to life and writes more and that Peter Jackson will make his stories into movies and that the 6th and 7th Harry movies will come quickly.

But now I have to ask, what will I look forward to reading next? Maybe I'll have to switch to 'ripped bodice' novels, there seems to be plenty of them floating around, and you know my mind isn't cluttered enough.