This image showcases the inviting interior of a cozy independent bookstore filled with wooden shelves, diverse books, and a warm atmosphere perfect for reading.

To continue the celebrations, and with the fact that summer is coming on rather quickly, I’ve assembled a list of some great beach reading. What is a beach read? Usually, they’re books that are entertaining, accessible, not intellectually challenging but must keep the reader engaged, and probably not too serious. There’s possibly a mystery, maybe some poignancy, and probably some romance. Some thrillers can be classified as beach reads, but nothing too gory, please! And you’re not going to take a big honkin’ history or a political polemic to enjoy while you’re sipping a fruity beverage on the shore or by the pool. Above all, a beach read should be fun.

Here’s a list of great beach reads, old and new. If I missed your favorite, add it below in the comments!

• Motherhood by Domenica Ruta
• She Regrets Nothing by Andrea Dunlop
• Nash’s Ashes by Sarah Adler
• Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds by Allison Brennan
• Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok
• Set Piece by Lana Schwartz
• Isola by Allegra Goodman
• Nora Goes off Script by Annabel Monaghan
• The Chrystie Affair by Nina de Gramont
• Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
• What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
• Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
• Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Blue Bistro by Elin Hilderbrand
• Happy Place by Emily Henry
• Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum
• Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
• The Royal We by Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks
• The Verifiers by Jane Pek
• Summer Island by Kristin Hannah
• Something Wilder by Christina Lauren
• One Night on the Island by Josie Silver

Books and sunglasses on a beach

And for those who want to catch up on some classics:

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
• Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown
• Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
• The Secret History by Donna Tart
• The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
• Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan
• Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie

The post Beach Reading 2025 first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

A Tanglewood Mom asked for recommendations for “your latest greatest thriller that got your attention from the first chapter and you could not put it down until the last page.” Thrillers are so much fun! Of course, the Tanglewood Moms group came through with some great suggestions. So bookmark this page for when you need your next great read!

• The Robert Hunter series by Chris Carter
• The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
• The One: A Thriller by Audrey J. Cole
• The Hunter by Tana French
• Ask for Andrea by Noelle W. Ihli
• The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
• The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
• Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• The Housemaid by Frieda McFadden
• The Beetle by Richard Marsh
• Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
• Devil House by John Darnielle
• Brother by Ania Ahlborn
• Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
• Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
• Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
• If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
• None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell
• Come with Me by Ronald Malfi
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
• Daughter of Mine by Megan Miranda
• Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

There are soooooooo many more! But if we’ve missed your favorite, leave a comment below. I’m always looking for a new thriller!

The post As Determined by TWM: Best Thrillers You Can’t Put Down first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Well. I DOVE into the comments. While fiction is the preferred genre for summer beach reading and winter cozy reading, I tend to read nonfiction in the spring. Weird, right?

Of course, the Tanglewood Moms came up with some amazing suggestions, much to my budget’s demise. But now I have a lovely large To Be Read pile on my bedside table, so thank you!

• A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan
• I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennett McCurdy
• Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
• If My Heart Had Wings: A World War II Love Story by Nadine Taylor
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
• The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt
• The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage into Self-Mastery by Brianna West
• The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
• Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg
• The 5AM Club: 11 Tips to Help You Wake Up Early, Energize, and Get Things Done by Michael Lombardi
• The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
• The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin
• Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Viginia Sole-Smith
• If You Only Knew: Navigating DNA Surprises and the *NPE World by Lezlee Liljenberg
• Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes
• Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FB by David Grann
• The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South by John T. Edge
• The Disappearing Spoon and Other Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements by Sam Kean
• Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World by Jennie Allen
• When the Body Says No More: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection by Gabor Maté
• How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
• Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around Dallas-Fort Worth by Amy Martin
• Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas W. Tallamy
• Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
• Feeding Each Other: Shaping Change in Food Systems through Relationship by Nicole Civita and Michelle Auerbach

The post As Determined by TWM: Best Nonfiction Books first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

I love beach reads. Don’t get me wrong. I love a deep dive into an obscure corner of history or a learned dissection of a thorny social issue. But summer, with its heat and humidity, calls for something lighter. Something that doesn’t need quite so much work to enjoy. However, that doesn’t mean that beach reads are poorly written, cotton candy fluff. They just aren’t so weighty.

So I’ve gathered the beach reads of 2023 that are on my To Be Read List. If you have read any of them, be sure to leave a comment below saying how you liked them!

• Pieces of Blue by Holly Goldberg Sloan
• Happy Place by Emily Henry
• Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern and Diane Ladd
• Quietly Hostile: Essays by Samantha Irby
• August Blue by Deborah Levy
• The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer
• Bad Summer People by Emma Rosenblum
• The Beach at Summerly by Beatriz Williams
• Hula by Jasmin ‘Iolani Hakes
• The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes
• The Secret Life of Sunflowers by Dana Marton writing as Marta Molnar
• The Paris Daughter by Kristen Harmel

Don’t forget to tell us what you think of the list and your reviews of any of the books listed above!

The post Summer of ’23 Beach Reads first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Literary tourism is not a new thing. Upper class European men (and later women) of means and ranking would take a “grand tour” through Europe. The Grand Tour was supposed to be a complete immersion in art, music, architecture, and literature to educate and give depth to shallow youths. Tourists would flock to Florence to walk in the footsteps of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. Verona has long capitalized on its ties to Romeo and Juliet. (If you go to Verona, be aware that “Juliet’s Balcony” was added to the façade of a 13^th-century house in 1937 as a set for George Cukor’s film of the Shakespearean tragedy.) Literary tours continue to this day, as you will see.

The Old Fortress and the Old Town, Corfu, by Martin Falbisoner, CC

Did you watch the Masterpiece Theater series, The Durrells in Corfu? This popular show was based on a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by renowned naturalist and conservationist Gerald Durrell. The trilogy, consisting of My Family and Other Animals; Birds, Beasts and Relatives; and Fauna and Family (published in the United Kingdom as The Garden of the Gods) recounts the four bucolic years that Durrell spent on the Greek island of Corfu with his family before World War II erupted and sent the family hurrying back to England.

Gerald Durrell was the youngest of four siblings. His stories of life with Larry (the famed novelist Lawrence Durrell), Leslie, Margo, and Mother, as well as his dogs Roger, Widdle, and Puke and assorted wildlife Gerald adopts are some of the funniest you will ever read. Seriously, I can’t read these books in public because I invariably end up laughing until I’m crying. And thanks to the television series, a new generation has come to appreciate Durrell’s books.

Fortunately for all of us Durrellites, we can tour Corfu and visit many of the sites mentioned. We can see the Strawberry Pink Villa and the Daffodil Yellow Villa, two of the places the Durrells lived. We can wander across the Chessboard Fields near Lake Chalikiopoulou, where Gerry would wait for the tortoises to emerge in the spring. We can wander along Pontikonisi, or Mouse Island, and get coffee in Corfu’s Old Town. There are several tour companies on the island who are devoted solely to the Durrell’s idyllic stay on this magical island.

Chatsworthy House, aka “Pemberly”, by Gareth Williams

My mother is an Austenite. She loves the books of Jane Austen with a passion that has not dimmed. While I am not quite as much of a fan as my mother, millions of others are. Jane Austen was a brilliant writer. Walter Scott, in an anonymous review of Emma, praised Austen’s realism, her “art of copying from nature as she really exists in the common walks of life, and presenting to the reader, instead of the splendid scenes from an imaginary world, a correct and striking representation of that which is daily taking place around him.”

With the enduring popularity of Austen’s books, there are naturally many companies that offer tours of “Austen’s England.” Do you want to explore Austen’s life. You can tour both Steventon, the small village in Hampshire where Austen grew up, and Chawton, 15 miles away, where the house where Austen wrote all six of her novels is now a museum. Or perhaps you’d prefer to visit Bath and explore the settings of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Chatsworth House, the Derbyshire seat of the Dukes of Devonshire, is one of the estates that claims to be the inspiration for “Pemberley,” Mr. Darcy’s stately home in Pride and Prejudice. Another is Lyme Park, former home of the Legh family, in Cheshire. Austenites can visit both houses and decide for themselves.

Macondray Lane, aka Barbary Lane, San Francisco, CA

When I was in college, my roommate introduced me to Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City.” This series of books was originally published as serial of newspaper installments, starting in 1978, and follows a group of friends in San Francisco. Maupin used San Francisco as essentially a character in the books, with locations like Russian Hill, Grace Cathedral, and Jackson Square adding color and realism to the books. I’ve read these books so often, I can walk in the footsteps of Mouse, Mary Ann, and Mrs. Madrigal in my mind.

For those who want to walk in their footsteps in real life, don’t despair. Lovers of the books (and of both the PBS series and the later Netflix series) can either visit the books’ locations by themselves or take a guided tour. There are several companies that offer “Tales Tours.” Be sure to climb the Macondray Steps, the inspiration for the Barbary Lanes Steps in the novels. Or fly a kite where Anna and Edgar did on Ocean Beach, adjacent to Golden Gate Park. The possibilities to experience Maupin’s San Francisco are almost endless.

So when planning your next trip, why not think about the books you love? Visit James Joyce’s Dublin or The Lost Generation’s Paris. Follow in the footsteps of Spencer as you tour Boston or find out where Hogwarts really is. Literary tours are a wonderful way to see a location and will add depth to your next re-reading of your favorite books.

The post The World Is a Book first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

This year (January 1 through December 26), 5,244 guest attended family and children’s story times, and 262 adults attended author talks and programs.  769 patrons joined librarians for What Fort Worth Reads, a weekly Wednesday Instagram chat where participants discuss book recommendations.  As part of programming expansion, in 2022 every library location will host at least one weekly youth/family story time and author talks will occur monthly throughout the city.  Residents can find upcoming programs for all 17 library locations at FortWorthLibrary.org.

The Fort Worth Public Library added nearly 200 thousand new items to the city’s collection and saw 3,050,185 items checked out.   On Dec. 13 library patrons set a record by checking out more than one million books through the library’s online catalog.

Top titles, whether in print or digital, for 2021 included:

Adult Fiction

• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
• Fly Away by Kristin Hannah
• Such a Fun Age: a novel by Emily Henry

Adult Non-Fiction

• Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches by S.C. Gwynne
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peopleby Stephen R. Covey
• Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
• Cast: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• Extreme Ownership: How US Navy SEALs Lead and Winby Jocko Willink

Young Adults

• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
• The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesby Suzanne Collins
• Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
• Six of Crowsby Leigh Bardugo

Youth/Children

• The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway by Jeff Kinney
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
• The Deep End by Jeff Kinney
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley’s Journal by Jeff Kinney

Part of the Fort Worth Public Library’s commitment to building a community of learners, dreamers and doers is to reduce barriers to access library materials and services.  Adult residents and all children can obtain a free Fort Worth Public Library card. Additionally, the library offers special cards for local businesses and professional educators teaching Fort Worth students.

The post What Fort Worth Read in 2021 first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Jeff Guinn is the granddaddy of Fort Worth authors. A former investigative journalist and the Star-Telegram’s former book editor, Guinn is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. A member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, Guinn’s latest book is War on the Border: Villa, Pershing, the Texas Rangers, and an American Invasion. 

Allison Speer, author of the Fort Worth favorite Theodore, the Turkey Who Found a Zoo, has just released her second book! Faith Flies is about a little flamingo, quite literally, who learns to love herself. A former journalist, Allison is the mom of five children and teaches eighth grade reading in Fort Worth.  

A Southern California girl, Macy Gilson came east to play volleyball at TCU and promptly fell in love with Fort Worth. After earning a master’s degree at Baylor, Macy came back to Cowtown to be a speech language pathologist. Her debut book, Kindness Is Golden, celebrates diversity and raises disability awareness.  

Although Jessica S. Olson is originally from New Hampshire, these days she calls Fort Worth home. Her debut novel, Sing Me Forgotten, is a fantastically lush, feminist twist on the classic The Phantom of the Opera. The mother of three, Jessica has learned to appreciate the value of a good air conditioner here in North Texas! 

Fort Worth native Jennifer Drez’s first book, Goodnight Cowtown, was inspired by teaching her young sons about their hometown. The success of Goodnight Cowtown led to other books about Dallas and San Antonio. Jennifer’s latest, Goodnight Firehouse, is sure to be a favorite of all little firefighters.  

Marjorie Herrera Lewis is an award-winning sportswriter, quite the feat in that male-dominated field. Her love of football lead her to write When the Men Were Gone, based on the true story of a woman who coached football during World War II, and to coach football at Texas Wesleyan. She teaches Media Ethics at the University of North Texas.  

Based on the real-life Berachah Industrial Home for the Redemption of Erring Girls in Arlington, Home for Erring and Outcast Girls is Julie Kibler’s second novel. Inspired by some of the headstones in the home’s cemetery, the book is a memorable, character-driven story about the strength and resilience of women at the turn of the last century.  

George Goldthwaite grew up in Fort Worth before joining the Navy as a pilot, eventually becoming a flight instructor. His love of backpacking, canoeing, and the great outdoors adds to his writing, especially the middle reader Eagle Mountain Adventures trilogy. He and his wife came back to North Texas where he continues to write for children and grownups alike.  

Growing up in Fort Worth, D.M. O’Neal has lived a life worthy of a novel. One of seven children, Michelle became a forensic lab technician while attending college and learning to be a single mother. Her experiences as a Senior Forensic Chemist in the Fort Worth Medical Examiner’s Office add to her debut novel, Shambles, a gripping mystery that will keep you guessing until the end! 

The post Read Local! first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Best Maid Pickle Emporium recently opened in Fort Worth’s Near Southside. The iconic pickle brand, with its lovable mascot Smiley, is now a destination for fans of the local business and all things pickled. The space is part retail store and part museum. Long rows of encased shelves hold historic relics and merchandise – some of which are several decades old. The Best Maid Pickle staff did a wonderful job of telling the story of the popular food brand through the decades. The retail space has hard-to-find pickle options (like the oh-so-zesty Bloody Mary Pickles) and even pickle-themed custom jewelry. Make this store your first stop on your superfan road trip and see what the “big dill” is. 

Capes, wands, and magic brooms are welcome at Coffee Mugg(le) in Corpus Christi. Medieval banners hang from the roof of the newish coffee shop, and color-coded chairs allow visitors to display your allegiance to the house of Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw. Caffeinated drink options include the Raven Coco (cold brew with coconut, cream, and white chocolate), Malfoy (white mocha latte), and El Hedwig Latte (white mocha with caramel, espresso, and cream), among others. Sit back and watch as the barista conjures up a spell-bindingly delicious hot beverage. “Latte Patronum!” There’s even a Golden Snitch Treat, which may be the only time I catch one of those dastardly Quidditch balls. 

If your summer road trip includes Houston, plan an evening at Hobbit Café. While the Lord of the Ring movies popularized J. R. R. Tolkien’s popular book series 20 years ago, the Hobbit Café has served customers since 1972. There are several guilt-free food options like the Shire (avocado, fresh tabouli, tomato, alfalfa sprouts, and mayo) and Smaug’s Delight (smoked turkey, avocado, tomato, and melted jack cheese). Indoors, you’ll find vintage posters of characters from The Hobbit alongside more recent props from the popular movie series. Grab a mug of mead and chow down Hobbit-style – if you don’t mind a bug-eyed Gollum staring you down while you feast.   

Millions of Americans fell in love with the American epic Western miniseries Lonesome Dove when it first aired in the late 1980s. Reruns of the ground-breaking miniseries remain popular, but fans of Larry McMurtry, the author of Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment, and The Last Picture Show, can enjoy a more tangible connection to the iconic television series that was set in South Texas by visiting McMurtry’s Booked Up bookstore, located in Archer City (about a two-hour drive from Fort Worth). According to a 2009 article in D Magazine, the bookstore, which launched in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. in 1971, grew from the author’s love of “book ranching.” McMurtry, who died in March of this year, built his early career both as a novelist and book scout. Speaking of his bookstore, McMurtry said, “Few books are rare; we have handled only a handful in 44 years in the trade. But many books are attractive. Customers come to us from wherever the four winds blow.” 

Allied bombing runs over Europe are credited with crippling the Nazi war machine and paving the way for the Allied land invasion that freed Western Europe. Many of the ace bombardiers and pilots who led that effort began their training in West Texas. Beginning in 1941, Midland was home to the world’s largest bombardier training facility. West Texas offered mild weather, nondescript terrain, and a temperate climate to train cadets on the basics of formation flying and target practice. More than 1,000,000 practice bombs were dropped over an area the size of New Jersey over the course of the war. The Midland Army Air Field Museum dutifully protects vintage planes and WWII artifacts, educational exhibits (including one that recounts the submarine rescue of George Bush after his plane was shot down), and aircraft ride opportunities for the WWII and air war buffs out there.  

As you plan your trips across Texas, don’t forget the superfan in your family. Wherever you go, there’s bound to be a place to delight a hardcore fan’s heart.  

Edward Brown is a writing tutor and piano teacher. He is also an award-winning writer for the Fort Worth Weekly and volunteers for numerous Fort Worth nonprofits. He has spent the last two weeks walking and talking with the protesters in Fort Worth.

The post Superfans, Unite! A Texas Guide to Hobbits, Pickles & More first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Here is the Fort Worth Public Library’s list of the most popular books in Fort Worth for 2020:

Top Ten Adult Fiction Books

1. Where the Crawdads Sing– Delia Owens
2. The Guardians– John Grisham
3. Walk the Wire– David Baldacci
4. Blue Moon: a Jack Reacher novel – Lee Child
5. A Minute to Midnight– David Baldacci
6. The Night Fire– Michael Connelly
7. Camino Winds– John Grisham
8. The Silent Patient– Alex Michaelides
9. American Dirt– Jeanine Cummins
10. Masked Prey– John Sanford

Top Ten Adult Nonfiction Books

1. Educated: a memoir –Tara Westover
2. Becoming –Michelle Obama
3. Girl, Wash Your Face –Rachel Hollis
4. Too Much and Never Enough –Mary L. Trump
5. The Room Where It Happened –John R. Bolton
6. The Splendid and the Vile –Erik Larson
7. Magnolia Table –Joanna Gaines
8. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone –Lori Gottlieb
9. The Pioneer Woman Cooks –Ree Drummond
10. Open Book –Jessica Simpson 

Top Ten Teen Fiction Books

1. The Tyrant’s Tomb –Rick Riordan
2. Turtles All the Way Down– John Green
3. The Hunger Games –Suzanne Collins
4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince –K. Rowling
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – K. Rowling
6. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes –Suzanne Collins
7. Renegades– Marissa Meyer
8. The Hate U Give– Angie Thomas
9. The Burning Maze– Rick Riordan
10. Mockingjay– Suzanne Collins

Top Ten Picture Books

1. The Pigeon Needs a Bath! –Mo Willems
2. The Pigeon Has to Go to School!– Mo Willems
3. Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet –Jane O’Connor
4. The Giving Tree –Shel Silverstein
5. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!– Mo Willems
6. If You Give a Dog a Donut –Laura Joffe Numeroff
7. Pete the Cat Treasury –Kim Dean
8. The Cool Bean –Jory John
9. Llama Llama Loves to Read –Anna Dewdney
10. If You Give a Cat a Cupcake –Laura Joffe Numeroff

Fort Worth, you have great taste in literature! The Fort Worth Public Library offers a number of book clubs for all ages and hosts What #FortWorthReads each Wednesday on Instagram Live. So make your lists for 2021, Fort Worth, and keep reading!

The post The Fort Worth Public Library Counts Down Fort Worth’s Most Popular Reads of 2020 first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Alas, the guitar I bought last year is still standing in the corner and there are many home projects my wife would love for me to do, but for me, this time of forced deceleration has meant more time to read. I haven’t kept track, but I’ve probably read ten books over the last few months. What a luxury leisure time is!

My only regret is that my library isn’t more robust. My library (a term I use very loosely indeed) consists of a rather handsome, antique lawyer’s bookcase. It’s stuffed to the gills and boasts an ever-growing tower of overflow volumes stacked on top. It isn’t much, but it’s a fairly well curated and ever-evolving reflection of who I am and who I want to become. Standing in front of it the other day, I began thinking about how home libraries are a snapshot of the owner’s mind.

For example, if you were to look at my humble collection you would see that I am interested in historical fiction, classical literature, military history (especially World War II), Stoic philosophy, spy novels, and William Faulkner. From the worn copy of The Iliad and the copy of Lonesome Dove with the pages falling out, you’d think perhaps I’m the type of person who is satisfied with the status quo. You’d surmise from the series of Foxfire books and my 1917 Webster’s Complete Dictionary (I enjoy “missing words” like “deoxyribonucleic acid” or “West Germany”) that I like “the old ways.” From the entire shelf of Faulkner, you’ll come to one of two conclusions: either this guy wants everyone to think he’s well-read, or he’s a glutton for punishment. The answer is neither. I have a disordered love of Faulkner.

While my bookcase doesn’t hold nearly as many volumes as I’d like to own, my overall collection of books is significantly larger, thanks to my digital library. Back in the mid-2000’s when the first digital book readers started to come out, I refused to entertain the idea of owning one. I declared that this abomination would never last, that this short-lived technological experiment would die as quickly as it came into being. How wrong I was! And how happy I am to have finally embraced this technology. Between my Kindle, Audible, and local library apps, I have literally thousands of digital and audiobooks in my pocket. While they don’t have the comforting feel or the inimitable smell of a real book, these digital volumes mean I always have something fascinating to read.

For decades, I have dreamt of having my own real library: a cozy, book-lined room of dark wood and brass with thick Turkish rugs, a huge fireplace, and big, comfy chairs. There’s a drinks cart in the corner, of course, a painting of an 18^th century sea battle above the fireplace, and maybe a gun rack with a pair of Purdey or Holland & Holland shotguns resting quietly until next fall. I fantasize about the books that will fill this beautiful room and the sliding ladder I will need to reach the upper shelves. Perhaps my dream library is a bit clichéd, but clichés become clichés by being universally accepted truths. Your ideal library probably looks different from mine, but it suits you perfectly because it is a projection of your mind, interests, and desires.

I have a friend whose father has a fantastic library. It is my favorite room in an unbelievably beautiful home. It probably helps that he and I share many of the same interests, but over the years whenever I have visited, I have always gravitated to that fabulous room. My friend’s father and I have had many wonderful, far reaching conversations there. Perhaps that’s the best thing about a library or even a bookshelf. They are collections of books, yes, but more than that, they are collections of ideas. Books are the vehicles for ideas, ideas that bridge generations by tapping into universal human emotion and experience, ideas to be explored, digested, and discussed.

I, for one, can never get enough.

The post The Home Library first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.