"Books We Keep" by Rolly A. Chabot

Morning again all. 1:00 am and it has hit again, you know the nights you are having trouble sleeping. Try as you may and you just lay there flipping over and over again. Might as well get up and do something. Thus here I sit, Quigley is looking at me and seems a little confused. You see the night ritual is to cover her with her blanket on her pillow in the bedroom. When I get up she needs to follow.

We have just had another electrical storm that lasted an hour or so. The first clap of thunder is what awakened me. I have an early morning as I meet with several other men for coffee at 7 just to catch up on what is happening in everyone's life. It is a good time, they are used to me yawning a fair amount so this will be just another of those days.

So gather around, help yourself to coffee refreshments and even a few store bought cookies and lets chat awhile.... above all know that you are loved and appreciated.

Have you ever noticed we are collectors of books. Well at least I have become such a person. As some of you may know I am an ordained Pastor. My collection is huge as over the years I have collected many theological, christian writers and several different genres.

My love of books over the years has been varied starting with westerns, progressing into science, history, world events and many other interests. Each has their own section and I love to slip into the small room I have set aside and the wall are filled top to bottom. Every once in a while I will pick up an old classic and read it again. The smell of the older books is enticing.

I started early to mark the date and location where they were bought and it is nice to go back and look at the entries and recall exactly where I was at the time. Now most books I buy I have on my Kindle. I guess times are changing. It s amazing the amount of books you can put on one of them. Mine will hold as many as 3500. That is likely close to all of my library.

I find myself often thinking of the old writers who worked with pen and ink and the mammoth task that must have been. The amount of thought that went into each word. I have wondered if it is something I should try. I think it would be a challenge to accomplish a novel of say 60,000 words.

We are truly blessed today in comparison to the old typewriters. I have an old Underwood I bought at a garage sale once. It is all mechanical and still works but my what a clunker in comparison to the Mac Book Pro I have today. Once in a while I will pull it off the shelf and play with it and it would take some getting used too.

Those who worked with pen and paper or manual typewriters were gifted writers and their works still live on in many of my collection.

Within an hour of here I have a Mennonite community and there is a couple who own a small book binding repair business and the work they do is amazing and at a very reasonable rate. I do need to look them up as some of mine are not in the best of shape.

Books to me have become the centre of much learning. Mom was a great collector of school notebooks and the like and I have many of mine that are 50 plus years old. Scribblers and a few text books. I was looking at one the other day and I had written my name, the date was September/1953. I had even taken the time to scribe in the phone number we had. It was 404... that was it just three digits. So now I have been carbon dated. Now here we need to dial a 10 digit number to reach someone locally.

If you have old books, treasure them and pass them along to others who you know has the same love of books. The oldest I have was written by an English Bishop a book of text for teaching from the pulpit. Its value is unknown but it has been singed by him and dated in 1852. The inscription is "To Elizabeth with love."

I do have a great love for a good book and hope you do as well... maybe time to pick one up and it may help me rest...

© Rolly A. Chabot