Those of you who know me well know that I am an avid book collector. O.K.-I admit it-I'm a book junkie-even in this day and age of computers where we could have access to almost any conceivable knowledge, there's nothing like a book(in my humble opinion). I have been known to come away from book-sale-give-away days with hundreds of books!And my poor husband just keeps cranking out the bookshelves....my dad(Hi, Dad!) always gets a laugh out of that fact. I am writing tonight of an incident that sheds light and justification on my book-collecting compulsion. I need to back up to earlier today. I am constantly making decisions on what to keep and what to give away in our home. This constant process does not just concern books, as we have many generous friends who are constantly sharing with us. We do love this, but I can only handle so much stuff. Now when it comes to clothes or toys, I don't have to think to hard about what we "need" and don't "need." But when it comes to books, I can think of a reason to keep just about any book. Well, I picked up this cute, little, 1960's-ish book on Vienna (the capital of Austria). I thought to myself," This is really neat(a small book filled with all-color photos of Vienna, including the old 1950-60's cars, and some text). Maybe some day when the kids want to see a picture of Vienna, I can whip this book out and show them." Then I thought a little more, andsaid to myself, "No. That is so ridiculous. We don't need to keep this." Then into the good will bag the book went. Then the good will bag went out to the trunk of the car right away(so we don't go through it again!)
Fast forward six hours. We are on our way to Skatetown for the church skating party. We are listening to "Beethoven Lives Upstairs," A clever CD on the life of Beethoven. Oliver yells from the back, "Mom, where is Vienna?" (the cd just mentioned how people in Vienna highly valued music, and as a consequence some of the world's best musicians lived there). I start explaining to Oliver where Vienna is, and it dawns on me in the most exciting way that IN THE TRUNK OF MY CAR, I HAVE A BOOK ON VIENNA-HAH!!!! It was the most amazing cooincidence. We were not planning at all to listen to this CD, and quite frankly, I must admit(humbly) that I did not know Beethoven lived in Vienna, anyway!!!!!So I was able to show the kids at that moment, Vienna! Then I was even further humbled when Ben said, "Oh, I know what Vienna is like. I read the book this morning."(when it was in the good will pile) Needless to say, the book came back into the house, and Emily's last words after kissing me goodnight were, "Mom, where is that Vienna book........."
