I enjoyed how our pastor brought up The Grinch in her sermon this morning and I loved the comparison of those who need a bigger heart to that neat Dr. Seuss creature. But, I also took a little trip down memory lane as I prepared our lunch – because that’s one of my favorite reads ever! I am glad that I went to the library with my toddler grandkids and became acquainted with Dr. Seuss and then actually ate green eggs and ham there too. Somehow The Grinch just seemed so human and real and he always made me smile too. I admire any book that Dr. Seuss wrote and was very happy I was introduced to his amazing words. I still have part of that amusing collection of words and took them out and read them again this afternoon.

  Of course I love The Polar Express, and always watch that movie as Christmas draws near, then I get out the book and read it again. My sons still remember the words to Where the Wild Things Are, and they loved me reading it to them. My first book, when I was just four years old was a Dick and Jane I found at the Hawkes Library. I was so happy when Santa brought me a green Schwinn bike one year and then I could ride to my favorite destination to check our as many books as my bike’s basket could hold. I know I’ve mentioned that my first injury came because I was reading and walking at school during recess. Our first grade teacher called out to me that I was bleeding and I looked up, wondering what she meant. Then I saw a smear of blood on the concrete surrounding the steps, touched my head and yep, it was mine. Glad I didn’t feel the pain nor did I get upset, and instead obeyed the teacher and followed her to the nurse’s room. I would actually keep a book in the front seat of my car to read when I was commuting … but only if I got stuck in traffic!

  Now am a serious James Patterson addict, plus John Grisham, J. A. Jance, and Nora Roberts sometimes. James Patterson and John Grisham never lose my attention. They also have very interesting subjects, usually crime, law, and other things of great interest. I do have another favorite book, but it has multiple authors, and that would be my Bible. I have several versions and mostly like the New Living Translation I received through a favorite magazine – Guideposts. I love my old, worn King James version I got in 1948. Like Grisham’s novels, I can keep re-reading my Bibles, well mostly the New Testaments.

  I still remember the old library I found when I first moved to McDonough. It was a tad smaller than the Hawkes library had been in Jackson, but full of wonderful tomes and easy to navigate too.  And just like the Hawkes library workers, the kind souls behind the big platform would use a date stamp and an ink pad on the inside cover of the books I was taking home with me. Now they scan my card. I watch the list of best-selling new books in the Living section of my Sunday AJC and when I make my next library trip I ask the staff to put a hold on one that I’m anxious to read. It doesn’t take long and I get an email that my book is ready for me. I’m no longer purchasing the books of my favorite authors as I’m still downsizing the Henry Hilton. I did re-read my Lewis Grizzard favorite lately and barely remembered “Don’t Forget To Call Your Mama, I Wish I Could Call Mine.”

  I’m so glad my grandmother and then my mother helped me become an avid reader. PTL!