Night Angel by Renee Reeves
While driving around the other day doing errands and various odds and ends (and also pondering my next blog topic) I happened to pass my town’s elementary school. A big black and white sign out front welcomed students and their parents to the school’s annual Book Fair. Immediately my mind took an emotional journey, traveling back in time to those treasured outings when my mother would take me to my schools book fairs and let me pick out any and every book I wanted.
Most children got excited about toys or video games, but not me. Oh no…for me it was books, and my mother–who also loved to read– understood and nurtured this. So, off we went to each book fair or library sale, and even though my mother was divorced and did not make a lot of money, she let me come home with as many books as my bags could carry. With barely contained excitement, I would peruse the book shelves, showing mom this book or that book, but my focus always remained the Black Stallion series, anything Garfield, spooky ghost tales, Fairies, Witches and Warlocks, Robin Hood, and anything dealing with horses and other animals.
Even as I grew into an adult, she and I would venture off in search of other book sales, and inevitably I would come home loaded down with bags and bags of them. Now, of course by this time, my point of interest had switched from childish fairy tales to romances of any sort, which is where the love remains today.
Little did I know back then how treasured those memories would become, or how much those times with my mother would mean to me, especially now that she is gone.
So, dear blog readers, I would love to hear some of YOUR treasured book-related memories, whether it be from your childhood, or even just last week. It doesn’t matter when they happened, only how much the moment ended up meaning to you.
Renee Reeves
BVS author of “Night Angel”
I still remember that in elementary school in the afternoon school program we would go to the library every week. They had a children’s hour where the librarian or our teacher would read a book to us and then we would pick a few books from the shelves to check out and bring home.
I remember those school library times too Jane. I loved getting out of class and spending at least an hour searching the shelves.
I love to find new authors, the latest one is Robyn Carr–the Virgin River series. The are awesome.
I’ve read and enjoyed the Virgin River series too.
When I was a child the entire family would travel an hour each way, every Saturday morning, to get groceries, hair cuts etc and go to the library. On the way home I would enjoy the treat bought & read. I always got car sick from the reading, but I never did learn my lesson.
What a great tradition Mary. I too get a bit ditzy reading in the car — but I still do it. Often when my husband and I travel a long distance by car I read aloud and he drives. We both get into the story and the drives seem a lot shorter.
You’re a brave soul, Mary. I always got sick while trying to read while riding, so I DID learn my lesson and waited until I was home to enjoy my books. But your family outing (with yummy treats AND books)sounds so wonderful!!
I remember going camping with my parents and brother and spending the entire time reading; I don’t remember the books, although it’s a good bet they were Nancy Drew books.
I remember camping with my grandparents. They would take my sister and I somewhere each summer. Where we went depended upon their budget. Some years we went long distances, other years we went camping at Lake Aquabi which was about 20 miles away.
They had an old school bus camper that they drove. It’d probably not be legal today as there were no seat belts. Grandpa drove and my grandmother sat on a folding chair beside him. My sister and I took turns in the easy chair behind them and in the bunk beds in back.
I read many books in the bunk bed in back. Back then I had pretty eclectic tastes. I read about George Washington, Florence Nightingale, Helen Keller, and about various careers. I read a ton of Nancy Drew mysteries and Hardy Boys too.
It was in the old school bus camper that I read my first romance novel when we went to an old car swap meet with my uncle. Most of the vendors only had old car parts of one sort or another but one vendor had a box of old Harlequin romances and an ancient typewriter — the kind that used to be in the opening for Murder She Wrote. I bought the old typewriter for $2.00 and my first Harlequin romance from that vendor. What a bargain!
What a treasured memory, Laurie! The bus sounds a bit…I don’t want to say dangerous, lol, so how about “not quite up to par” with todays safety standards
But to have bunkbeds in the back to lay upon and read, and to find book treasures along the way…that must have been so wonderful!
Thanks for sharing.
The times were different back then…the summer trips happened a good 30+ years ago…back before seat belt laws…back before car seats were mandatory for children. It was a different time. We never thought about being less than safe if we were in a crash. We just trusted that we would be safe as people seemed to do back then.
It was pretty much an idyllic time. Wonderful memories.
Hi Karen, I admit to having never gone camping before, but I can certainly see the enjoyment of sitting beside an open campfire, or snuggled down into a sleeping bag, with your nose buried in a book!
I also LOVE the library Estella and always looked forward to going. But, 5 books would only last me maybe 2 days if I was lucky, lol!
I love the library too. I went there often with my grandmother, but there was no limit, at least not one that I was aware of at our library. I would often come home with a paper grocery bag full of books. It was a big treat — and where I got most of the books listed above.
Hi Laurie, as I was reading your memory post I couldn’t help but picture myself also coming home loaded down with books from the library. I always found it exciting (and still do!) while other children HATED going there.
)
The books were read in a day or two, then I had to read my Dad’s westerns if I wanted to read.
My treasured book memories have to do with my weekly trips(we lived in the country) to the library. I could check out 5 books to last a WHOLE week.