On Being Bookish

Dear Daphne,

As you grow up in whatever homes our family inhabits, you will no doubt encounter the stacks upon stacks of books that your mother and I have collected over the years. The collection has grown year by year since before you were born, and will doubtless continue long after you have children of your own to read with. Frequently our book purchases outstrip our purchasing of bookshelves and the collection runs two rows deep. I like to think that we are hiding buried treasure for those brave enough to peruse the overstocked shelves. Ultimately, there is a very simple reason for the abundance of books in our life: reading is one of the most fantastic lifelong hobbies that a person can develop.

Your mother and I have loved books across genres innumerable. Modern literature, fantasy, science fiction, revisionist history, mythology, children’s literature, the classics, the works of the beat generation; we have called all of these friends, and always made room for more within the walls of our home. I think that might be part of the allure that books have always held for me. You can travel to the world of ancient Greece to fight alongside Perseus one afternoon, and be traveling across the stars with Zaphod Beeblebrox by the next morning. I strongly encourage you to read something from every genre. Being a well rounded reader makes it easier to find your way through the world and relate to new things in your own life.

I can say with certainty that by the time you read this, your love of books will have developed to the point where you are silently nodding to yourself as you read this thinking “thank god Dad gets it!” Well, I am proud to say that dear old Dad (and Mom too) aren’t the only ones who get it. Love of reading is almost a genetic assurance given your ancestry. My own mother once said to me that “a book is like an old friend and coming back to reread them is like visiting.” This statement really hit home with me, and I think of it frequently when I get nostalgic for books that I have not seen in many years.

But Grandma Collins is not the only other avid reader you know. Both of your grandparents on your mom’s side, as well as your Aunt Amanda and Uncle Paul have a love of books. My Dad reads more and more as the years go by and my grandparents helped instill a love of reading in me at a young age. Lots of our close family friends are voracious readers and we have all helped to introduce new books to each other’s lives. Each of us has slightly different tastes and you will be able get valuable guidance on your favorites from these family and friends. As you visit their homes, always be sure to browse their bookshelves. This is something I always do in the homes of my friends. You never know when you will discover something that you and a friend didn’t know you had in common. Perhaps even more importantly, you may find a new close friend among those vertically stacked spines lining the bookshelf.

Basically Daphne dearest, this entire lesson can be boiled down to one simple sentence, and I hope that the truth of it is as apparent to you as it has always been to me. “It doesn’t matter what you read, only that you do.”

Love,

Dad