Books, Bookshelves & Reading

"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting." ~ Mary Wortley Montagu

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them." ~ Mark Twain

"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." ~ Oscar Wilde

"If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." ~ Desiderius Erasmus

I was just looking through my cell phone, browsing my different genre of books using Google Books and Amazon Kindle Apps. I have 404 ebooks in total. As I scrolled through, I found myself reminiscing about my early days as an elementary school-age child spent surrounded by physical books and massive bookshelves. I actually miss the paper copies and extensive bookshelves of the past.

When I was a young Métis boy, my family lived in the northeast end of Edmonton. We faced the daily challenges of working-class life, living in low-income apartments and townhouses. Despite this, our home was rich in its own way. The walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, creating a haven for literature in every corner of our living room and bedrooms. My friends often visited, and we spent time browsing through the home library, which mainly consisted of my parents' books. We were amazed by the knowledge they must have gained from reading hundreds and hundreds of books over the years.

My father, a man profoundly appreciating nonfiction literature, was particularly interested in biographies. He was especially drawn to biographies that focused on the lives and experiences of individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. On the other hand, my mother possessed a multifaceted, bookish palate containing fiction and nonfiction works. Her reading preferences spanned American and Russian classics, ancient Stoic philosophy, and contemporary philosophical and societal authors.

Their shared passion for encyclopedias was apparent in the way they absorbed the knowledge within them. They would discuss obscure facts and fascinating stories with equal fervour, leaving us kids astonished. It felt like such an education! We all considered our parents to be geniuses. Watching them research encyclopedias often led to engaging conversations that explored the surprising discoveries they had made and explained to us kids.