Let Them Eat Books

New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen wrote something 18 years ago – about the time I was elbow deep in diapers with my newborn. She could have taken the words right out of my mouth:

“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”

I did not voice this self-same wish audibly, but I did spoon-feed my children books from the time they were babies. My oldest gravitated to newspapers and books before she could walk, and I happily encouraged it…that is until I noticed she had quite an appetite for the written word – literally. She loved to eat paper and her Pampers proved it!

My firstborn never showed any interest in getting into cupboards or cabinets or anything else that we had baby-proofed within an inch of our lives. No… she wanted books, the Lifestyle section and the Opinion Page.

My husband and I quickly stocked up on sturdy inedible cardboard books that could withstand a fair quantity of drool and frequent page turning. She loved all books, but her favorite was “I Am a Bunny,” written by Ole Risom and illustrated by Richard Scarry. She and her sister can still quote this whole book  – “I am bunny. My name is Nicholas. I live in a hollow tree…”

Her favorite tub book was Bert and Ernie’s Bath Book, a canary-colored volume that floated like a beacon amid the soap suds. Ironically, I don’t think she ever so much as splashed her yellow rubber ducky.

Some of my girls’ fondest memories with their dad involved trips to the library, where they would drag a laundry basket along the carpeted floor, filling it with enough books to last them two weeks. Fortunately, the librarians printed out a list of checked-out books, which allowed us a relative amount of success when it came time to round them up. We would get the occasional late fee, when a book slid behind the bed or under the car seat, but my husband and I decided it was a small price to pay over the long haul.

Books were prized in our house as was reading time. Birthday wish lists always included a title or two, and soon “Papa,” their grandfather, was enlisted to build a new bookshelf for the girls’ room – one that went from floor to ceiling. (Another similar shelf was filled to capacity.)

One of the book-related memories that makes me smile was a conversation about the houses my girls imagined living in when they were grown-ups. I asked my daughters to describe their “some day” house.

“Oh, it will have a great big ladder,” one of them said.

Puzzled, I asked her if she was going to live in a tree house.

 “No, silly,” she said. “I’ll need it to reach the books on the top shelf in my library!”

 Anna Quindlen would have been so tickled to hear her say that. I know I was.

In the few short years since the publication of Ms. Quindlen’s column “Enough Bookshelves,”technology has taken off. While I am still drawn to libraries and paper books like a starving silverfish, there are New Age ways to possess and devour books. Computer technology has ushered in the age of downloadable ebooks, interactive whiteboards, hand-held Kindle book readers, reading applications for smart phones, and websites such as Big Universe, where thousands of children’s picture books are available to read wherever you have Internet access.

Virtual bookshelves! Who would have thunk it?

2 Comments

• dot granata says:

  August 19, 2009 at 3:32 pm

  I just stumbled on to your website and read the charming article “Let them eat books.” It is SOOO great to know that other mothers are enjoying reading to their children as much as I did. I have five grown children, fourteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren and counting. I will certainly tell all the parents about your website.
• Silvia Cristina says:

  March 23, 2010 at 2:11 am

  Thank you for this brilliant article. My spouse and i valued the critical thinking you put straight into it. I really believe I’ll go through much more you have writen about the subject matter. Thanks again!