Saturday, April 20, 2013

R is for...

R is for...

"Rooms without books is like a body without a soul." ~Marcus Cicero

I could not imagine never having books. They have always been in my life from the very youngest time I can remember.

My parents knew that reading was important and the very essence of being able to be productive in society. We had Little Golden books, Dr. Seuss and a variety of other books to look at and read.

I have mentioned before a separate room in our house my parents called the "library". It was full of music and housed our piano. More importantly, it was the place you could find books, books and more books!

My Mother being a teacher and Dad a journalist, there was a vast differences in books that could be found. There was also the classics too.  In fact, up until last year, my parents had owned an original set of books by Mark Twain.

So, yes, books as other things in my life have been heart and soul.

This brings me back to the original quote though. 

It is easy to forget that some people around the world have absolutely no access to books. There are women of the world who could even be killed for learning to read. That is hard for me to fathom but, it is true.

Is their body and soul empty because of it?

Well, I think in some ways the answer has to be yes.  Think of the things we learn from books.  Think of the lives that could be improved just by being able to read.

If you can read my words, then you can read.  A book could  be in your hand right now. You can be learning something new.

We are so lucky, aren't we?
~Naila Moon




5 comments:

XmasDolly said...

I didn't know that! Interesting.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

We didn't have a lot of books growing up but as we grew so did our collection. I remember discovering the library in my elementary school. I thought it was a gold mine.
What might the world be like if everyone could read and have access?

Adaptable Kay said...

Truer words have never been spoken! I've never really put it into perspective quite like this, but your words definitely make me realize I AM lucky to have easy access to whatever books I want.

Books have been my escape for many years and I couldn't imagine how I would have gotten through some tough times without them.

Next time I pick up a book, I will think of this post and send a thank you to the universe :)

Anna said...

I love that quote. I actually shared it on Facebook last week.

I had a large collection growing up also. I would inhale books. I had a passion for reading like a person has for water on a hot day. And though I don't have a lot if free time I believe that passion lives on in me and I have a fairly large collection today in my home.

I feel very blessed to have the freedom and ability to read. Great post, thanks for sharing! :)

Dawn Embers said...

Same here. I love having books. One of the managers where I work even gave me three books. She was so happy to have another reader to chat with about books. :-)