Time for some Classics....

I majored in English Literature in College, so I have read a great deal of Lit... and yet I am woefully lacking at the same time. While I have read Shakespeare and Keats.. Tolstoy and Hemingway...  Faulkner and Milton... Mann and Wolfe... Browning and Twain ... on and on.. there are many books considered classics that I have never read. For instance.. I have never read a book by Jane Austen... I have seen movies of her works, but never read them.  I have never read Little Women or Anne of Green Gables.. In fact, I grew up watching Little House on the Prairie, but never read them until I had children of my own.

I read a great deal with my children.. not just picture books, but chapter books.. we read together well into their early teens.  I got a big fill of classics then... the Sarah, Plain and Tall series... E. B. White books (actually I read those as a child too!)... Phantom Tollbooth (OK another favorite from childhood).. Narnia (I never heard of these until my older child was 8!)... The Wizard of Oz (the book is soo much better than the movie!)... and on and on... Needless to say I enjoyed this part of their childhood a great deal and now that they are grown (24 and soon to be 20!) I miss that read aloud time and those classics. Surely there will be grandchildren to read with one day, but in the meantime...

I have decided to read some classics on my own. Some will fall into the category of "children's classics" (like Montgomery and Alcott's works) and others will be adult fiction (Austen and Bronte).

If you own a Kindle or have a Kindle ap on a device, you can read the vast majority of these for free or at very little cost. Most of the Anne books are free, but I could not find the first 2 in the series in the freebies. What I did find was a collection of all the Anne books for the Kindle for 99-cents!  Alcott and Austen books I found for free, as well as a few others I want to read.

And if you have a library, you should be able to find all of these there for free! I love the library.

And lastly you could purchase print copies.  If you have children at home consider reading these with them.  Even very young children can handle a chapter a night from a children's book and there are so many wonderful ones out there from days gone by.  If your nest is empty, like me, you could save them for future grandbabies or once read, donate them to a school or some program that caters to children and literary needs.. or give to a child in your church or neighborhood.  Anything to promote reading!

If you are looking for ideas as to what to read, here is an excellent place to start:  List of Classics by Age Group

I just finished my first classic of the year.. there will be a review very soon.  It was a delightful read!

A new way to read...

E-Readers are everywhere.. Kindle, Nook, iPad... and I have never wanted them. Well, I want an iPad, but not to read books.  I love the feel of a book in my hands... the act of turning the page... love it!  Could not imagine I would really enjoy reading any other way.

Last month I had a birthday.  Pretty much every one who knows me knows I am addicted to reading, so no surprise my gifts are often books or something related to reading.  This year I received a Kindle from my daughter and her fella. I can't say I was jumping for joy. I just wasn't sure I would really use this thing. Now understand, I love technology.... love gadgets and gizmos... but I still could not see me reading on a machine instead of holding a book.

A friend had given me a site to find free Kindle books some time ago and I actually had a bunch saved on an old laptop. I had tried to read there via Kindle for PC and hated it.  But for some reason I kept collecting free books. I mean really, who can resist!?

So once my new toy was set up, I was able to move my collection of freebies to it. 60+ books.  I played with it a bit and finally decided to give it a try. Oh my... I will not give up real books, but oh my. Here is the thing.. you can change the font size!  I am 49 and have always had poor eyesight. I was legally blind at birth... had surgery at 2... one eye was saved and is just slightly less than 20/20 these days. The other eye is just on the edge of still being legally blind. Both eyes are over 40 and strain to read tiny print especially late in the day when they are tired.  So this feature... being able to change font size... is like a dream!

It still feels odd to hold a gadget instead of a book and to click a button instead of turn a page, but I have gotten rather use to it and even have a rhythm to it once I get going.

Again, it won't replace books for me.... I love them too much and am an avid supporter of my local library! Plus once I have grandchildren, we will be reading the real thing not an imagine on a screen.  And I have to have real books for the bathtub. I have dipped many a page into the water.  Not a tragedy to me... adds character.. shows love.. I don't think the Kindle would fair as well.

I am adding a list here on the sidebar of a few books on my Kindle. So far all free... I haven't found anything I want there badly enough that I need to purchase it. Books I want to own are going to be in paper for now. But I won't toss the Kindle out either. It definitely has its place in my life... not replacing my beloved books, but adding a new dimension to the reading experience.