"A house without books is like a room without windows." ~Heinrich Mann

             A few months ago I wrote a post about how I would love to have a library full of books in my house someday. Well, I've made some great progress toward that goal! Although I did receive lots of great gifts for Christmas, I have to say that I was most excited about the 6 books I received. My family does a sibling gift exchange and this year Jae chose my name. Jae is a great gift giver. I'd say it's one of his greatest attributes. He really should win an award or something. To be a gift giver of the same caliber as Jae, you have to have a memory as sharp as a pencil on the first day of school. Let me tell you why. This summer our family went to Yellowstone and got to spend some time exploring the little shops that line the streets. I found a bookstore and probably could have spent the entire day there. The front of the store was full of current books and bestsellers. The back of the store was FULL of shelf after shelf of antique books, artwork, and sheet music. I was in heaven! I had never seen so many beautiful books in one place before. I met up with my family and told them all about it even though I don't think anyone else found it remotely interesting. I don't think I have spoken about it since then, so I was SHOCKED to open the present from Jae on Christmas and find three antique books. He had remembered how much I loved them and had gone to a little book shop in San Francisco to get them for me. They are BEAUTIFUL! A few minutes later I opened three more books from my parents. One of the books was part of a joke my mom played on all of us. She had gone to DI and picked out a book for each of us to open as a joke. It was so funny to read all of the titles! Mine was, How to Survive the Loss of a Love. Maybe someday that will come in handy :) The other two were Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; two classics that I've been wanting to read for a long time. Those six books currently reside on the shelf in my room and make me happy every time I look at them. Thank you Jae and thank you parents for giving me books!!

"In reading, a lonely quiet concert is given to our minds; all our mental 

faculties will be present in this symphonic exaltation."  

~Stéphane Mallarmé