Reading has always been a great pleasure of mine so it was a natural fit for me to read to the girls from the time they were only a few months old. I loved to hold them on my lap with a book in front of us and run my finger underneath the words as I read aloud. As they got older each would sit on one side of me while I held the book between us. Many precious hours were spent together, many books were read, some times so often we nearly had them memorized. Although it's not as routine since the girls are older, we still read together. Some thing I don't like to miss. From this our Seven Pillars Book Nook came to be -- a generational library to some day pass on to both my daughters. My oldest has even started her own collection -- the library continues to grow!
As a mom and a home educator I found many benefits to having our own family library of "Sustaining" books at home. The books in a family home library are easy to get to. There are no open-close hours so we can choose books to read any time of the day and read at own leisure without risking overdue fines. In some circumstances, we can even write in certain books or mark them when we want! We can keep books as clean as we like them and use them to decorate a room. One of the best benefits is that a family home library can be a "generational" library to pass on to children.
One of the ways we can have our family home library is by purchasing used and vintage books at reasonable prices. We shop at library sales, used book stores, thrift stores, and garage sales. While hunting for our own vintage treasures we often times find duplicates and other books we just can't pass up. My book-selling began some years ago and now more recently with my Seven Pillars Book Nook blog so that I can share them with other home educators and like minded families. This really does help fund our library!
Good questions to ask and think about when selecting books to read to your children: What is a good book? What makes a good story? What are "Sustaining-Enduring" books? That depends some what on what a person wants in a book or to get from a book. This varies for individuals and from family to family but there are some things to consider for finding a book to fit your individual and family tastes. A very famous bear, one of our favorite bears, helps with answering this question. In fact this is one of my favorite lines from Pooh and The Hundred Acre Woods -- Pooh had been eating a bit too much honey and got stuck in Rabbit's front door:
Image at left is from my copy Winnie-the-Pooh 80th Anniversary Edition, Pooh Goes Visiting, p26-27, c2006 Dutton Children's Book, with the buttery-cream yellow pages I love as much as the text.
As Pooh said, "Sustaining" books are books that "help and comfort." How can a book be a "help and comfort" to a person or do such a thing? Are there different kinds of books that do more than others? Pooh thought so and so do I. What Pooh calls "Sustaining" books I also call "Enduring" books. "Sustaining-Enduring" books are the kind that tell us a story -- a story that touch us on multiple levels in the inner most core of our being. "Sustaining-Enduring" books and their story speak to the whole person of mind-heart-spirit-soul, to feed, inspire and nurture the intellectual-emotional life itself. Hidden within these stories are repeated questions every generation asks -- why do we have these minds?, why are we thinking-emotional-creative-worshiping beings?, why do we search out things and want to "know"?, why what is the meaning of life?, what is my part?, why is it that we aren't as good as we think we are or as bad as we could be? -- grand, enduring ideas echoed gently within the pages -- ideas that require hard work to struggle and wrestle with rather than memorizing answers.
"Sustaining-Enduring" books are written with significant descriptive language, not necessarily big words. They have a developed theme using both lovable and disgusting characters to create a vicarious experience to move the reader eagerly forward in their imagination to engage their mind-heart. These stories have a way of drawing the reader in from the beginning to take them to another place and time that can feel almost real, as if a participant in the story. They bring the reader to the end of the story with it being apart of them and changed forever, still wishing to be “there” or hungry for more. Their stories are remembered long after the cover is closed and are returned to for reading again and again. These are the books of information and ideas that feed the soul -- that shape thinking and character. "Sustaining-Enduring" books are engaging, inspiring, nurturing, and memorable -- lovely treasures -- a preference in our family.
A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh is one of those very "Sustaining-Enduring" books, one of our favorites and a sampling of the kind of books we own, enjoy and recommend. Here at my blog there will be a hodge podge of information about books and authors, quotes, poems, online literature, book reviews and lists of our favorite books.
"Sustaining-Enduring" books are written with significant descriptive language, not necessarily big words. They have a developed theme using both lovable and disgusting characters to create a vicarious experience to move the reader eagerly forward in their imagination to engage their mind-heart. These stories have a way of drawing the reader in from the beginning to take them to another place and time that can feel almost real, as if a participant in the story. They bring the reader to the end of the story with it being apart of them and changed forever, still wishing to be “there” or hungry for more. Their stories are remembered long after the cover is closed and are returned to for reading again and again. These are the books of information and ideas that feed the soul -- that shape thinking and character. "Sustaining-Enduring" books are engaging, inspiring, nurturing, and memorable -- lovely treasures -- a preference in our family.
A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh is one of those very "Sustaining-Enduring" books, one of our favorites and a sampling of the kind of books we own, enjoy and recommend. Here at my blog there will be a hodge podge of information about books and authors, quotes, poems, online literature, book reviews and lists of our favorite books.
I hope you'll enjoy looking around and find a childhood favorite or two, perhaps a book that will become a new favorite, and, of course, some "Sustaining-Enduring" books to read to your children.
Enjoy!
See links to right for individual lists of books that are currently FOR SALE.
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Thank you!
~G. K. Chesterton~
Proverbs 9:1 Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars.
The "Seven Pillars" has reference to Proverbs 9:1 in the Old Testament where "Wisdom" has built a special house, similar to a temple, to be used for a large get-together banquet or meal. This is a precursor of Christ's parable in the New Testament which explains what the Kingdom of God is like by comparing it to the wedding feast of a king. If interested, see further explanation here. The image to the right is my old, original logo from when I first started selling vintage books online in 1996.
Disclaimer:
All drawings and quotes on this page are from the original works of A. A. Milne and Ernest H. Shepard. All images, text, characters, and their names from the Winnie-the-Pooh books are registered trademarks of Dutton Children's Books. Dutton Children's Books in no way endorse this blog, neither are they affiliated with these pages in any way. Nor am I or Seven Pillars Book Nook affiliated with Dutton Children's Books. All information and images on this page comes in part from Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh Goes Visiting, p30, c1961 E.P. Dutton and Co. and Winnie-the-Pooh 80th Anniversary Edition, Pooh Goes Visiting, p26-27, c2006 Dutton Children's Book. These books are published in the United States by Dutton Children's Books, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. The information about Pooh's “Sustaining” books has been used as a public service for parent's of children, Pooh fans of today and for future Pooh fans - for their enjoyment and for the love of story, reading and learning.
