For the Love of Books

Book love. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live. (Anthony Trollope)

I love to read. I read everything that crosses my path: cereal boxes, pasta packages, every page of every book I pick up, including the preface and introduction, acknowledgments, back fly leaf, author bio, etc. etc. etc.

Several years ago, I received a book, Honey for a Woman's Heart by Gladys Hunt, from Christy as a Christmas present.What a great resource that book has been for me. The book is divided up into chapters: Nonfiction, Classics, Genre Fiction, Biography, Poetry, Spiritual Growth Books. In each chapter, she lists books that fit those categories.

Our town library has a great resource. I can choose a book I want to read, then go to the library's website and see if they have it. If they do, I put in my request and in a day or two, they call me to tell me it's waiting for me to pick it up. If they don't have it, I can put in an inter-library loan request, and they'll get that one for me, too. What a deal!

So here is my first book report in a series I intend to do. This book was actually recommended to me by a fellow lover of books - Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter. The language she uses in the book is so descriptive and rich. I was hooked by the first paragraph:

Bright was the summer of 1296. The war which had desolated Scotland was then at an end. Ambition seemed satiated; and the vanquished, after having passed under the yoke of their enemy, concluded they might wear their chains in peace. Such were the hopes of those Scottish noblemen who, early in the preceding spring, had signed the bond of submission to a ruthless conqueror, purchasing life at the price of all that makes life estimable, - liberty and honor.

This is the story of William Wallace, the people's hero of Scotland. I did not like the Hollywood film version of the story at all. However, the book showed Wallace's character in a way that touched my heart. He was forgiving and gracious toward his enemies, as well as loyal to his country and integrous in his actions. A hero is sure to have enemies who are jealous of his popularity, even at the expense of the security of the nation. But Wallace had faith in God and didn't take vengeance on those who were out to destroy him.

Here is another example of the beautiful language of the story as told by Jane Porter.

After having traversed many a weary rood, the venerable minstrel of the house of Wallace, exhausted by fatigue, sat down on the declivity of a steep craig. The burning beams of the midday sun now beat upon the rocks, but a few berries from the brambles, which knit themselves over the path, with a draught of water from a friendly burn, offered themselves to revive his enfeebled limbs. Insufficient as they appeared, he took them, and strengthened by half an hour’s rest, again he grasped his staff to pursue his way.

Do you know what a "rood" is? Or, what is the meaning of "declivity?"

There are many things about reading that broadens the mind. For one thing, you use your imagination. For many of us, TV has robbed us of the ability to use our imaginations. All the images we see on the screen are doing the work for us. But they are actually someone else's ideas of what the story should look like, not mine.

For another, you are able to go places and see things you wouldn't otherwise be able to experience. Books can also take years, where a movie is only 2-3 hours. How can a plot or character be realistically developed in that short amount of time? Some movies do a good job, but it's still unrealistic. Real life is not lived in 2-3 hours, or 1/2 hour as in a sit-com.

I was not only inspired by the life of William Wallace, but also gained a new understanding of the conflict between Scotland and England at the beginning of the 1300's. It was a pleasant way to learn history.