I filled out a survey last year, something government-y and educational-ish, to do with school.
One question asked how many books were in the household for adult readers, and another how many books for children. It turns out we have very little reading material for adults in our house, and a huge amount for children.
Yet I do read very widely. I read a lot of popular science, some new fiction, and now and again I’ll try out a must-read classic. I read a lot, but I don’t always keep books. In fact, if they’re very good, I’m almost certain to pass them on to someone else. I’m also very big on libraries, so I borrow most of what I read.
These habits probably come from moving around a lot, first out of town to university, then for years at a time overseas. I never liked to think of my books sitting unread and aging in storage.
I borrow a lot of ebooks too, because I can read them in the dark when I’m looking after sleeping youngsters. I did buy one once, but there are no email reminders of it, and there’s no random sighting of it on a bookshelf. I keep forgetting I have it. It must be ten years now, and I still haven’t finished it.
Ah, but the children’s books! Many of my childhood favourites remind me of particular times in my life. There was an aura of growth and discovery about every new book, and I get that feeling again on every re-reading. Chapter books, picture books, and all the books in between: I have kept almost all of them, and tracked down copies of those I was missing.
Not only that, but I have added to them. There are many, many wonderful new books for children, which I discovered when I became a parent. At my children’s first primary school in Australia, they would read from the CBCA Children’s Book of the Year Award shortlist each year. What a wonderful way to keep up with excellent new writing and illustration!
My husband has also kept all his own favourites from childhood, still in gorgeous old suitcases, and many of those were new to me too. Building our little family has turned our library of children’s literature into something quite fabulous.
Right now, in addition to our books at home, I have something like ten library books ready to return, and about the same number again waiting for me on the library hold shelf. Most of these are children’s books: I’m catching up on the new New Zealand writing I missed out on while I lived away.
I have a memoir checked out as an ebook, which I’ll read in the coming days. It’s good and, very importantly, it has a due date. But the ebook I once bought remains mine, and remains unfinished. I’m off now to the library website, to order it as a hard copy.
Tania Sickling 