Opening the cardboard vaults took me back to my childhood, my high school years, college, the birth of my first child and many years of falling asleep reading to my kids.
Childhood - The Little House on the Prairie set, The Ghost of Windy Hill, The Secret Garden, Where The Wild Things Are
High School Years - I am the Cheese, The Scarlet Letter, A Tale of Two Cities, many, many Agatha Christie novels
College - James Joyce, Henry Miller, Douglas Coupland, D.H. Lawrence, Keats, Byron, Shelley, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Katherine Dunn
Birth of my first child - What To Expect When You're Expecting, My mom's Dr Spock book, Goodnight Moon
Many years of falling asleep reading to my kids - Go Dog Go, Are You My Mother?, The Little Engine That Could, Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel, The Giving Tree, The Sorcerer's Stone, Where The Wild Things Are
I've made a stack. I've made a stack of those books that are on my get reaquainted list.
First up is a reread. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Here's a quote that caught my attention.
"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer."
It just struck me is all.
Another little nugget I pulled out of my cardboard vault was Alexander Dumas' Dictionary of Cuisine. It's familiar but not so much. I suspect it was purchased just prior to those 'falling asleep while reading to my kids years'.
A little gem from the Dumas' Dictionary.
"Pears with Bacon. Cut bacon into little cubes and fry. Peel and cut up cooking pears and steam in a little veal broth. Drain the bacon and the pears and mix them in a pot, adding a pinch of nutmeg, coarse pepper, and a few tansy leaves. Cook together 1/2 hour and serve this fine German dish with fried croutons, as it is served every Wednesday at the court of Württemberg."
Are You My Mother is the best ever!!!
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