Books and Knowledge

Oh, for a booke and a shadie nooke,
Eyther in doore or out;
With the grene leaves whispering overhead
Or the street cryes all about;
Where I maie reade all at my ease,
Both of the newe and olde;
For a jollie goode booke whereon to looke
Is better to me than golde.

-Old English Song

A stack of books, several open, sit in front of me on my table. There's simply no better thing to be surrounded by, in my opinion, then a stack of books! I can be comforted in a railway car, bare and metal with no seats and no heat going through some frigid land, if I were sitting amongst some books.

Really, I think there are few things in life that I need more of. I could forgo getting more clothes, shoes, dishes, furniture, but not books! Do not deprive me of the best invention of man. The best companion. The best scent that are old books. It is learning new words, new stories, and gaining knowledge. It is the imagination running free. It is looking at the world through another's eyes.

Indeed, let me live among them and if stacks get high, start another book tower. I've been sitting here all morning flipping through various books and reading poems and passages.

Words centuries old are entering my mind and bits of wisdom stick, I hope, for reflection. The more I read the more I understand, even if I don't feel the immediate declaration in my mind say "aha!" It compiles on top of another concept and as they meld together the wisdom grows. Let that never end. This continuous growth and gaining of knowledge. My brain soaks in as much as possible.

Today, I am a sponge. Every day I am a sponge. And I cannot help but be just that. It is a desire deeper than understanding. It is just part of me.