It’s World Book Day. The day to celebrate books.

And one can’t celebrate books without also celebrating our access to them, and those who help us find them. So we celebrate the writers of books. Those who edit and publish them. Those who manufacture them. Those who deliver them and booksellers who buy and stock their shelves with them. And readers who read them, love them, want more of them.

We celebrate all those people and their parts in the process of taking the book sparked in someone’s mind and delivering it to the mind of a reader.

Thinking about this, I stepped back in time to when I was a little girl.  We were poor, but I didn’t know it. I remember the day I got my first library card.  Boy, did I feel powerful. And boy did I use it!

My Mom and Dad were such big readers and library patrons that when the Librarian got a new book in–any kind of new book–she’d call and tell them. They devoured reading.

I remember well sitting in an oversized rocker–one that accommodated my brother and mother and me and her reading to us out of the encyclopedia. How she made that fun still mystifies me, but she did. I recall that often.

Just as I recall the patience of the Librarian who guided me through books, explained what I didn’t understand, helped me find answers to questions and taught me how to search. She deserves a medal for that. I know I thanked her–we’re taught to do that in the South before we’re taught to say anything else.  But I don’t know that she ever truly knew what a difference she made in my life or how many windows and doors she opened in my mind.  I pray she did.

I’ve jotted down things I think about Libraries and Librarians over time. And I thought this was the perfect day to share them. You know how I love quotes, so I’ve written them up that way. I limited myself to 25. I’m smiling here because I had so many more!  But I settled for 26. Smiling at that, too.

You can view my quotes here.

I hope you’ll pause and express your gratitude for books on this World Book Day. And if you have a favorite quote you’d like to share, please do in the comments section.

Blessings,

Vicki