More Memories

One piece of literature for every three pieces of trash.

This was my mom’s rule for me when we went to the library or book shopping.  It was instituted when I started to read VC Andrews, Sweet Valley High, and other tawdry YA “classics.”  She never said I couldn’t read those things, she just wanted me to read other things as well. And because it was three for one I thought I was totally getting away with something. A brilliant scheme on her part really! Even now I realize that unconsciously I still tend to live by this rule.  I still love my trashy, escapist reads, but after a while I feel the need for a cleanse.

Some of my fondest memories are the trips she, my dad, and I would make to the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, a book Mecca if you will. Once we hit the store we would all head our separate ways. I could wander for hours knowing that I could always find dad reading in a chair in the mystery section. Eventually, we would all congregate back there and leave with a huge pile of books.  I always felt so lucky. And I was. So lucky to come from a reading family; now lucky to have married a man who reads and blessed to have a three year old who loves books.  I can’t begin to thank my parents for allowing this to grow in me.  The last time we all went to the Tattered Cover was during a trip for the final fitting of my wedding dress, much too long ago but an amazingly special trip. 

As I recall, the first time my mom instituted the three for one rule my literature choice was In Cold Blood. She didn’t bat an eye (what a lady huh?).  That book is still on my shelf, and it is with great pride that I say I have absolutely no idea what the three pieces of trash were.