Tales As Old As Time

"After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books." —Albert Camus

I've been into reading "the classics" lately. Even as an English major I've found there are still a lot of books I have yet to read to earn the right to call myself a true English major dork (then all I need are 25 cats and I can become the crazy old bat English major).

I love being able to read these books at my leisure and not feel the pressure of thinking about what essay topic I need to write about as I read them now for fun instead of for school. I do, however, miss the class discussions. I miss learning. I feel like I miss out on a lot of the little nuances (or sometimes miss the book's message entirely) without a professor to fill me in.

It took me a while to get back into reading after graduation, I was so sick of it. Now, a few years later, I'm back in my element...perusing used bookstores, reading during lunch break or before I go to bed. My problem now is space. I dream of built-in bookshelves, separate sections for my poetry books and Tommie's over-sized history/sociology books (that's what he gets for always reading non-fiction). I'm like Belle in Beauty and the Beast...I would be thrilled if a hairy, grizzly man set up a library for me in his rundown mansion.

Tommie and I sometimes spend hours creating virtual color pallets for our dream library (and the whole house) we don't have. It's sick really, but I've always been a fan of fiction...a girl can dream. Someday I'll have the house, the library, the 25 cats, and I wouldn't mind dancing in a ballroom with a charming grizzly man either.