Passion

Part of my backlog of books to read in my basement library

Now there is a blog title to grab your attention.  

I am passionate about a lot of things.  Politics,  friends, movies, music, genealogy research, photography, gardening, food and……reading.  

Of course I am a passionate lover but this isn't the forum to go into that passion.  Co-workers, friends, family and hubby reads this blog….occasionally and I wouldn't want to embarrass them (or myself) with a written account of my naked passion in that arena,  maybe someday folks but not today.

What I'm writing about today folks is my passion for reading.  I believe I've written about this subject before but I feel the urge to write about it again.  

I first began reading back in the Fifties.  "Force read" I call it since it was the Dick and Jane books with "see Spot (their dog) run."  I remember even at that early age "WTF?" Of course the acronym "WTF" didn't exist then (I take literary license) but I knew even then that THIS wasn't the reading I was destined for.

So while I whiled away my time in boredom at the back of my elementary school class, I noticed a row of orange book binder books on the shelf behind me.  Up until that time the only other reading I had done was the Weekly Reader, which, if I remember correctly was a "Weakly Reader."  No meat, not much substance. "WTF?"  

The "Weakly" Reader during my time - early 1950's

While Mrs. Yost droned up in front of the class I turned around and took one of those orange books off the shelf.  The one I chose was "A Biography of Ben Franklin."  

A "Little Orange Book" - I couldn't find one for Ben Franklin on the Internet but it looked like this -  I think I also read this one - I read them all!

I would read that book in class while teach up front was telling the rest of the class to "see Dick" doing whatever he was doing.

My old East Ward Elementary school - I took this photo from the back porch of my friend Larry Meredith - I wish I had  taken more photos of this school because it is no longer - this grand old building was torn down in the late 90's to make way for a new elementary school which looks like crap.  I am so lucky that I lived at a time to attend school at such a grand old building and not one of these Russian mausoleums that they call elementary schools today.

My sixth grade classroom where I began serious reading.  I sat in the back but on the day this photo was taken I was at home, quarantined with both of my brothers, one of whom had scarletina fever.  Thus a very historical photo was lost without me in it.  

Eventually I read all the biographies including Alexander Hamilton, Lewis and Clark and including even a book on their Indian guide Sacagawea.  

"Take that next bend and that's the Northwest Territories"

 Now that my reading appetite was whetted, next up was to get my library card at the Downingtown library.

The Downingtown Public Library

The Downingtown Library was located in an old stone building like the East Ward Elementary school where my reading gene was first awakened.  The library was only a few short blocks on Lancaster Avenue from the school which was located on Washington Avenue.  

When I first entered the library I was almost overcome by the welcoming old musty smell of the thousands of books that line their walls to the ceiling.  

I got my library card and began reading in ernest.  Oh those were the days.  Whole new exotic worlds were opened to me.  

This was back in 1951 folks, when I was a mere slip of a lad of ten years old. 

Me, my fifth grade elementary school photo - bad hair but genuine, eager smile

Folks, my seduction in the world of reading was complete. I was no longer interested in what "Dick" was up to, I wanted to explore the world.  I wanted to experience other folks lives; their successes, their failures and their relationships.  

Folks, that was over sixty years ago. I've read a lot of books since that innocent, duck under your desk in case an A-bomb is dropped on us, time.  

This morning Bill and I went out on this very hot and muggy July summer morning to drop some items (mine of course) off at the thrift store.  As is my won't I checked out their books lining their shelves.  Wow, 50 cents each.  I bought three.  Next thrift store I bought two more.  The last thrift store I bought three more.  Those books are now in the Tipton Library in my basement, patiently awaiting me to devour them as I have been doing for the past sixty years or so.  

At any given time I'm usually reading two books. One that I place on my bed headboard (current book a biography on Bob Hope - what a skinflint and womanizer - who knew?) and one in my bathroom "library" (a convoluted biography of Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris who I am having a very difficult time plowing through but I will get through, there as some good nuggets of information about our 40th president in this book once you get past the self aggrandizement of Mr. Morris who considers himself quite the writer).  

My preferred reading is biographies and histories and current events.  I don't give much time to fiction, true life to me is always more interesting than some made up fluff.  I'm not a mystery or thriller fan in books but I am in the movies.  Give me a good, well writing biography and I'm happy.  

Maybe someday I'll write a book.  About what?  My life of course.  There is no more interesting subject that I know of.  At least of me.  Of course I know this wouldn't be a best seller but what I do know that there is someone out there like me who would appreciate my adventures in life.  That's why I keep a journal.  Good reading for someone in the future, that is if they aren't thrown out with the trash when I die. 

What doesn't go into my blog is in these journals. Oh my.

Please Read Me a Story!

Time for a meme folks.  It's been too long.  I was wondering what to do for my post this morning.  Then while I was doing my morning perusal of my favorite bloggers I came across this one from Dr. Spo.  It's all about reading which is me.

Fasten your seat belts folks, here goes:

1. Describe your favorite place to cozy-up with a good book.

That would be my bed folks. I always read before I go to bed.  If  I'm into a really good book, I'll take the opportunity during the day to lie in my bed and read a few pages.

2. What do you read when you're on the toilet?

Usually a paperback.  I rarely read a hard cover book when I'm on the hopper.  Don't want to take the chance it's going to do in the "drink" when I flush the toilet.

3. Do you ready when taking a bath?

Hardly, I don't take baths.  I take showers.

4. If you can, do you read when at the gym?

Gym?  What's a gym?

5. Do you still read newspaper and or magazines?

I glance at the newspapers at work for the headlines and if I'm interested in reading the full story, I'll bring it up on the computer.  The only magazines I read are the trashy gossip rags like the National Enquirer ("inquiring minds wants to know") and the Globe.  I need to read the latest about President Obama's homosexual encounters and which straight women he's having affairs with.  When are the gossip rags going to understand Obama can't be a womanizer and gay at the same time?  Just asking.

6. What are your favorite genres to read?

Biographies, preferably celebrity biographies.  Holocaust memoirs and most other non-fiction.  I do not like fiction.  Real life is always more interesting than made up stories from self-important authors.

7. If you start a book, do you finish it no matter what?

Almost always unless it is really God awful which is rare for the books I choose to read.

8. Did your parents read to you when you were growing up?

Never.  NEVER.  I wish they had.  But I have a friend who has volunteered to read to me now in my old age dotage.  I'll take it.  Better late than never.

9. Have you read to your kid/nephew/nieces?

Never and I don't want to.  Are you kidding? Why would I do that? They're afraid of me.

10. How do you feel about reading books versus using electronic devices?  Have you feelings evolved from one or two years ago?

No, I like reading a book, not a tablet.  Call me old fashion but I like the feel of a book.  I have read on electronic devices in a pinch but I prefer a hardcover or large paperback book.

BONUS

When was the last time you looked at or read an adult magazine to satisfy yourself?  When was the last time you even saw one?

NEVER.  Reading magazines or pulp sex books doesn't "do it" for me.  I prefer to download videos from the Internet.  That "works" for me.  Pictures or lurid descriptions don't.  Again, color me old fashion.  Of course the "real deal" is even better my options for that scenario is very limited to almost nil at my advanced years.  

Reading

My bed bookshelf

I love to read.  The first book I read was a biography of Benjamin Franklin.  I was in sixth grade.  I sat in the back of the classroom.  Behind my desk was a wall long cabinet.  On top of that cabinet was a collection of orange books.  Those books were biographies of American historical figures, some of whom were  George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, etc.

My Sixth Grade Class (I was absent the day this picture was taken - my desk was the third from the right in the back - my friend Billy B. is sitting at my desk)

Me when I discovered books 1953

No one encouraged me or told me to read those books.  I was bored by the class and curious as to what was in the books.  Up until that time the only reading I did were the Tom, Dick and Jane (and Spot) books, the books of Fifties elementary school.  Later I read the Weekly Reader.

Mrs. Yost, my sixth grade teacher who let me read 

I remember to this day picking up that first orange covered book biography of Benjamin Franklin.  I've forgotten a lot over the years but I remember holding that first hard covered book.  I opened it and glanced at the pages.  I was quickly drawn into another world, the world of the 18th century and Benjamin Franklin flying his kite in an thunder storm discovering electricity.  I asked my sixth grade teacher Mrs. Yost if I could take a book home to continue reading it.  She said I could.  It was from that point I was hooked on reading.

I quickly went through the collection of orange covered autobiographies.  I've often wondered if the color orange had a lot to do with luring me into reading those books because I so remember that warm, inviting color.

The Downingtown Public Library

After I finished that collection of books, someone suggested that I get a library card for the Downingtown Public Library.  The Downingtown Library was/is a grand old stone building located on the tree lined residential street that runs through Downingtown.  I still remember the wonderful smell of old books when I first walked into that wonderful, welcoming building.

I got my library card from the wonderful older woman (she was probably 40 but she seemed old to me) who sat behind a desk stacked with books.  It wasn't too long before my library card was filled with dates of books checked in and checked out.

From that day in 1953 until today, I have probably read thousands of books.

My favorite books are biographies, history books, and current events/political books.  I read some fiction but I don't read mysteries, science fiction or poetry.  I never got those books.  It doesn't mean there is anything wrong with those books, it's just that they bore me.

I read before I go to bed.  I read in the bathroom.  I read when I eat.  I read all the time.

What I'm reading now, "Include Me Out", Farley Granger's autobiography

I love reading.

Me reading in bed - my favorite bedtime activity...really

Sitting Pretty

Clifton Webb, Actor and Dancer Par Excellence

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a voracious reader.  My favorite reading material are biographies, especially celebrity biographies.  Coming in a close second are historical novels.  I have little or no interest in fiction nor mystery novels.

The celebrity biographies I have read this year so far are of Ava Gardener, Lucille Ball, Linda Darnell, Tab Hunter, Robert Mitchum, and Maureen O'Hara.  I just finished reading "Forever Dobie" which is the autobiography of Dwayne Hickman of Dobie Gillis fame.

All were interesting but totally different writing styles.  Some were written by the celebrities themselves and some by authors who never met the celebrities but wrote from interviews with those who knew the celebrities.  I enjoy reading all the biographies, no matter how badly they are written and some of them are pretty bad, believe me.  To me they are all fun reads.

But now I have found a true gem.  It is the biography of Clifton Webb.  The title of which is "Sitting Pretty".

Most of the readers of this blog probably don't know who Clifton Webb was.  Briefly, he was a somewhat acerbic and prissy actor born in 1889 who played John Phillip Sousa and Mr. Belvedere in films of the Forties and Fifties.  I always enjoyed seeing Clifton Webb in a movie.  He was the most unlikely leading man type, because of his prissy and effeminate nature.  As a ten year old soon to enter my teenage years I found myself oddly in synch with this wonderfully entertaining man.  No, he wasn't one of those movie actors that I had a crush on (that would be Farley Granger and Guy Madison) but I did feel "at home" when I saw Clifton on the silver screen.

Thus it was with great joy I discovered that a biography has just been published about him.  It is in hardback and costs almost $25!  I never pay that much for a book, I usually wait until it comes in paperback.  But I just had to have this book so I sprang for the higher price.

I was wondering how the book would read because part of the book is written in Mr. Webb's own hand and the rest was finished by an author who never met Mr. Webb, but instead worked from his numerous notes.  Clifton started to write his autobiography but by his own admission became "bogged down" and thus never finished it.  His handwritten notes were found in the basement of the daughter of the executor of his estate many years later by the author of this biography.

Clifton Webb never married.  It was assumed he was gay but of course back in those days such horrific information would spell the end to a movie career.  Most assumed Clifton lived in the closet but there was never any proof that he had any homosexual relationships.  He lived with his mother most of his life.

Thus it was a stroke of good fortune that the author of Clifton's biography found his unfinished autobiography and assembled Clifton's notes to publish the first an only biography of this wonderful and fascinating man, Clifton Webb.

Now here is the good part.  I started to read Clifton's biography and I am absolutely blown away at what a brilliant writer of prose that Clifton is.  Oh how I do love good prose.  It is so rare that I find a book that has good prose let alone a book about such an interesting man as Clifton Webb.  And what is really good about this book is Clifton's personality burst out of the pages that he writes.  WHAT A GOOD BOOK!

I find myself going back over and reading the same sentences and paragraphs just to savor the well honed prose and bask in the fascinating personality of this man.

I don't usually do reviews of books (or movies) but I am doing one now.  If you like to read a book about a fascinating man with a deadly, on target acerbic wit; this my friends is the one for you to read.

I wish I could recommend it to my friends but I'm afraid it is all over their heads which is sad.  Oh how I wish I had a friend like Clifton Webb today.  Now my friends, don't be offended.  I love the friends I have and appreciate them but I'm telling you, if I had a friend like Clifton Webb with his wit, charm, intelligence and talent; my head would probably explode.

One thing I know for sure, this is one book I am going to enjoy reading.  Just thought I would pass this along to all of you.

Reading

What to know one of my all time favorite activities?  Reading in bed.  


I've been reading in bed for years...............and years.


My bedroom is my oasis.


I retreat from the messy and untidy world and enter my own safe universe.


Reading is one of my all time favorite activities.


At any given time I'm reading between four and six books.  


I always have a book in the Reading Room (aka bathroom).  


I always have several books going at my bedstand.


I read while I eat in the kitchen.  


I read a lot.


I love reading.