I have a decent book collection that truly speaks to my ever-changing interests.
Many of the books are along the large bookshelf that I acquired from Kit West, the Kerrville Daily Times society editor in 1980.
Back then, society editors carried everything outside of news and sports.
Engagements and weddings were carried to great detail, including the description of the bride’s dress and the honeymoon destination of the newlyweds.
Society editors and sections still exist of course, particularly in large metros, but they were once as important as the front page news or the football coverage in sports.
Anyway, Kit sold me the bookshelf because I couldn’t help admiring it whenever she would host a party for the paper. She lived across the street from us.
Kit was quite the celebrity in town as the society page gatekeeper.
During World War II, Kit had edited an Army base newspaper.
She was a source of fascination for me as a beginning reporter.
She had hundreds – if not thousands of books.
I grew up in a book-loving newspaper family so Kit’s treasure ensured my love of having more books endured.
Jessica and I are the big readers in this reading family.
Books are a staple gift at Christmas.
Our books are not limited to the Bookshelf, but to another room that once served as an office.
More book shelves.
So, it would seem natural to bring books and magazines with me to the bedroom.
But MaLinda has grown to be uncomfortable – there’s an understatement - with my stacks of books and magazines.
She has covered a wonderful reading chair with a sheet, to deter the cat population.
Well, since the chair was out as a place to relax and pour through the pages of some kind of literature, the chair has been a library of sorts in our bedroom.
Today, that treasured place to pile my books has lost its status as a literary resting place.
The chair is a handsome piece, as I admired it this afternoon after eons hidden by the sheet…and by the books, of course.
The cats remain and so does the sheet. But not the books.
MaLinda has removed virtually all of the reading material from the chair and bedroom.
Everything looks nice and orderly, but seeing my bedside table only holding a lamp, an alarm clock and perhaps my cell phone is a lonely look indeed.
OK, in fairness, there are about 20 books remaining.
But archaeology books telling the span of time have been vanquished like the civilizations they described.
