No, I don’t mean that kind of bookie!
I mean bookie as in “an insatiable lover of books.”
That would be me, and all you have to do is glimpse the shelves in my home studio – as well as the shelves of my Carthage office – to see just how important books are to me. And I must say that it runs in the family. My dad has an enormous collection of books and continues to add to it all the time. And his dad was a voracious reader as well. (They were both pastors, and I know very few pastors who aren’t also passionate readers. It’s as though it’s written right into the job description.) I still remember a somewhat painful moment towards the end of my grandfather’s life when he was living on the family farm outside of Kenyon, Minnesota- with his sister Gertrude – but about to go into a rest home. As they began preparing for that wrenching transition, my dad implored his Aunt Gertrude to not liquidate Grandpa’s library. “You can’t do it,” he said, “because a pastor’s books are like a carpenter’s tools.” Regrettably, I don’t think the story of my Grandpa’s library ended all that happily – but my dad’s attempts to safeguard at least some of those precious books has remained with me all these years later.
I have two powerful memories of reading as a youngster. One of them was that of reading myself to sleep night after night with our World Book Encyclopedia. It was the aforementioned Aunt Gertrude (my great aunt, actually) who was able to give us multiple sets of World Book Encyclopedias over the years because she was a marvelously successful saleswomen for Field Enterprises, the publishers of World Book. That’s where I really came to know much of what I know to do this day about U.S. Presidents, the planets of our solar system, and all kinds of other stuff. I couldn’t get enough of it. I also vividly remember those days in elementary school when we could order books from Scholastic Publishers- and some weeks later we would come in from recess to find the books we had ordered neatly piled on our desk. (It only occurs to me now that they may have done it that way in part to help disguise the fact that certain students in the class never ordered books- perhaps because their folks couldn’t afford them.) How I LOVED to read those books, and although my original copies disappeared a long, long time ago, I have managed to track down second hand copies of many of my favorites: The Forgotten Door, Runaway Robot, The Children Who Stayed Alone, Champ-Gallant Collie, and Triple Trouble With Rupert. I loved them then- and I love them now.
My experience of interviewing authors for the Morning Show has only deepened and broadened my love of books and I recently calculated that I have read or thoroughly skimmed well almost 1800 books for the Morning Show alone. (I have been sole host of the Morning Show since 1997, and in a typical week – especially in the first 15 years – I would air at least 6 or 7 author interviews per week. Just do the math. It’s a lot of books!) Those are the years when I would be up late at night, night after night, reading …. and I am still grateful to Kathy for putting up with what I’m sure was a perpetual frustration of being married to me. My reading pace has slowed a bit in recent years, but I still manage to read (or at least “heavily skim”) several books per week … and that’s just for the Morning Show. (I’m not even counting the books I read merely for fun- although I must admit that my professional duties don’t leave much time at all for that sort of reading. Woe is me.)
A recent experience that underscored how important books are to me came during my whirlwind trip to my old hometown of Atlantic, Iowa. A dear friend and classmate from high school, Allison Nichols Greenwald, made a point of getting to Atlantic while I was there so we could have a visit- and I SO appreciated the rare opportunity to reconnect with her. As it turns out, the last few minutes of our visit were spent exchanging book recommendations, and I walked away with these books at the top of my ‘must purchase’ list: Being Mortal, Driftless, Just Mercy, and Gilead. (And she has at least that many titles from me.) It only occurred to me in retrospect that when we recommend a book to someone, it is a deeply personal gesture. We are saying a lot about ourselves and what is either important to us or what entertains us (or both) ….. AND we’re saying a lot about what we think would be good for the other person to read or what we believe they will find interesting and/or enjoyable.
Of course, we don’t always nail the target. Marshall and I still chuckle over one such misfire when I all but insisted that he read a book I had absolutely loved called To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight by Richard Tobin. I thought he would love it as much as I did- or more – but he found it mind-numbingly boring! (I still can’t imagine how such a thing is possible.) Another friend of mine, Katie (Nagao) Kelso, borrowed a book from me after spotting it in my studio during a rehearsal. When she asked me about a book called Daughters of the Saints: growing up in Polygamy by Dorothy Salomon, I breathlessly explained that it was a fascinating book about a woman who grew up in a conservative sect of the Mormon church where polygamy was practiced – where she was one of seven wives to the same husband. I then all but thrust the book into her hands and insisted that she read it – and maybe it was partly because of my cartwheels and pom pom waving that created unrealistic expectations that couldn’t possibly be met. At any rate, she didn’t especially enjoy it. although I think she thought it was okay. It was a healthy reminder to me that our relationship with books is often a uniquely personal and emotional one, and sometimes books enter our lives at a particular point when they strike a profound chord deep within us. At any rate, I’ve learned to be a little less brash and certain about the book recommendations I make to other people. But if you ask me to recommend a book to you, prepare to be inundated by a veritable torrent of suggestions!
At my reception at the Carthage library, I found my gaze drifting again and again to the main display of books that were part of the Morning Show collection. Just glancing at the covers was enough to remind me of the fascinating information they each contained: a biography of one of history’s most important yet mysterious rulers, Genghis Kahn … a history of the development of America’s highways …. a chronicle of the 1958 NFL championship contest between the Colts and Giants, which helped usher in football’s modern age ….. the story of the epic corporate battle between two giants in the early days of video games …. an examination of FEMA’s monumental failure in the wake of Hurricane Katrina …. a discussion of how our widespread use of Google searches affects how we see ourselves and the world …. a celebration of gratitude and its capacity to change our lives …. a memoir by a conservative evangelical minister coming to terms with the reality that he was gay …. and on and on. Every book is its own adventure – and sometimes it will be a book that on the surface doesn’t seem the least bit interesting that will actually turn out to be one of the best adventures of all.
And by the way, I’m fortunate to be surrounded by books in my Carthage life as well. And just yesterday, as I was preparing for my Adventures in Lifelong Learning lecture, I found myself poring over some of the wonderful books that were given to me by Dr. Richard Sjoerdsma at the time that he retired from Carthage a few years back. He was anxious for his books to have a good home where they would continue to be used and loved. And they are.
So I am thankful beyond words for the books in my life – and thankful to be living a life in which books are not just fluff … but at the heart and soul of so much of what I do. What could be better?