Thursday, June 18, 2020



What value is a book?



 
“I’m out of new reading material!” 
“I’ve read everything in the house!”
                Those were a few comments I heard from avid readers in the last few months as the libraries and bookstores have been closed during the pandemic.  (Of course, this was from people who don’t do ebooks.)  But still…out of books?  How can that be? 
                I’m reminded of how recently in our history there truly was a shortage of books.  During World War II, American soldiers serving overseas were in wont of good reading material—so much so, that communities back home held book drives to send books to our soldiers.  An intriguing account of this time is found in When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning.  BTW, she notes the most sought after book by our soldiers during that time was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith…a really good read.
The Giver of Stars: A Novel by [Jojo Moyes]                Recently, The Giver of Stars, a novel by JoJo Moyes found its way to my Kindle.  It tells of a time during the Great Depression when books were in short supply, and Eleanor Roosevelt initiated the Traveling Library.  Women were hired to deliver books to families, and in this novel, they were taken to back-country Kentucky via horseback.  Wow!  What a great read.  You’ll want to check it out before the movie is released! The Amazon link to purchase the book is below.
                I hope I never take for granted the value of a good book.

  
 https://www.amazon.com/Giver-Stars-Novel-Jojo-Moyes-ebook/dp/B07NKP3JL4/