Judge a Person By His Books

You can tell a lot about a person by the books they purchase. Don't you agree? 

Well I recently attended a Friends of the Library Book Sale at the Walnut Creek Library in California. 

I love rummaging through used books because it's like digging into a treasure chest. You'll never know what you'll find. 

In the short hour that I had, I managed to walk away with 8 books all for only $8! If I had more time to spend, I'm sure I'd spend more than that. 

Anyway, here are the books I took home and what they tell about me and my family:

My 13-year-old dreams of going to Stanford. I thought he'd appreciate this lovely coffee book all about the history of Stanford. If he plans to go there, it might be a good idea to be proficient at its history.

This dusty cover caught my attention because it was written and illustrated by one of my favorite authors, Shel  Silverstein! It also so happens that it is the 50th anniversary of Shel Silverstein's very first children's book, Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back, which was published in 1963. I read through this book in an hour. It's full of good laughs in a twisted kind of way. I think Shel Silverstein was ahead of his time. This was written before the term "quirky" was a buzz word in the writing industry. This one is a keeper! 

One of my favorite childhood memory is huddling around a campfire sharing scary stories when I was in 4th grade. It was my first camping trip ever and it was with my school. So it was also my first time away from home. I thought it would be fun to reacquaint myself with some of these stories so I can practice my spooky story-telling voice with my kids. That will be a scream!

When I was a child my dad made me read the Reader's Digest during my summers. He was adamant about me improving my vocabulary. So now it's my turn to pass on the torch to my kids. I thought this would be more fun than the Reader's Digest. This book contains puzzles, games, and brain ticklers  to make learning new words much more enjoyable. 

How can I pass up a comic book of one of my favorite cartoonist, Gary Larson. I always look forward to the Sunday comics. Now I can prescribe myself some comic relief without having to wait for Sunday to arrive. But I have a feeling I'm going to have to pry this out of the hands of my boys.

Of course, I had to pick up a reference book for myself. As a writer, this will come in very handy. I know I can use the online thesaurus, but I still prefer a book right next to me. Besides, did you know that when I used the online thesaurus for the word "happy" and compared it to the results in this book, the Descriptive Word Finder gave me better choices (IMHO) for the word "happy"? I am exuberant about this find!

My boys asked me to pick out a book for them. I picked up this book because I thought they would enjoy the cool facts about the history of more than 1000 people, events, places, and things. What they don't know is that I really got this book for myself. Think of all the possible story ideas and articles I could write about from the inspiration of this book!

WWJD: What Would Jesus Do? I feel so blessed to have God as the center of my life and am even more thrilled that I can share the joy with my children. My eldest is 13-years-old and the teen years can be a challenging time for some. As I thumbed through the pages of this book, I discovered a wealth of life lessons that my son can learn from. It will help him deal with challenging situations and help him make good choices if he ever faces difficult situations that teenagers encounter. This book shares real stories from real teenagers and how they dealt with the problems they faced and how their experiences can help others. I have yet to read it, but I have a feeling this is going to be a good book.

There you have it. Eight books. Eight facts about me and my family. What do your book choices say about you? Check out your bookshelf and share.

In the meantime, I highly recommend you attend a library book sale. You'll be 1) helping your community library fund itself, 2) saving yourself money, and 3) be surprised at the treasures you will find.