Saturday, February 27, 2021

Saturday Morning at the Library

 When I was 5 years old, I was forced to take dancing lessons while the Brother was forced to take accordion lessons. I hated dancing class. The Knights of Columbus Hall where the classes were given had no heat or it wasn't turned on. I hated wearing the pink beginner tights. I liked clacking around in the tap shoes, but Ma wouldn't let me practice inside the house on the wood floors. I spent most of my time in class being miserable and crying. Eventually, I was taken out of class.

While the Brother still had to endure accordion lessons, Dad took me to the library. He would leave me upstairs in the children's library where I could look at the books and choose to take some books home with my own library card. As I got older, I would go downstairs to the adult library and wander among the stacks enjoying the scent of the books before going to find Dad in the reference area consulting the law books and catching up on his work.

So for the next several weeks, a list of my favorite books, some I have read as a child, others as an adult and some  I have read more than once.


A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, published 1843

"Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge’s name was good upon ’Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners for I don’t know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral, and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.

The mention of Marley’s funeral brings me back to the point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were not perfectly convinced that Hamlet’s Father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gentleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot—say Saint Paul’s Churchyard for instance—literally to astonish his son’s weak mind.

Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley. Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge, and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It was all the same to him.

Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas."

You can find this book and others at your public library or at your favorite bookseller.

This book is in the public domain. You can read it free online at Project Gutenberg

25 comments:

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    1. This topic reminds me of our trip to the BPL. Hopefully, the newly renovated Rare Books and Manuscript Department will be open again for a visit.

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  2. Charles Dickens is an author one can return to over and over, and no matter how many times I have read his works they never lose their appeal.

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    1. I was going to visit your site, but my virus/malware program popped up with a warning that your site had trojans. Perhaps you want to do a virus/malware check.

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    2. Firefox did the same for me on David's site, too. Not sure why, but if you click on his name and go to his profile, you can visit his site that way. There is NOTHING suspicious about his site, so I can't understand it, either.

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  3. I was more of a Trixie Belden girl myself. I didn't get to the 'classics' until I was older. My father called me a 'late bloomer'. Still not sure if I should be insulted by that remark or not...... :-/

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    1. I didn't read this until I was an adult and not until I had seen every film version of the story. Being a late bloomer isn't a bad thing.

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  4. It appears I'm once again running behind visiting your blog. I'll be by tomorrow (Sunday) to catch up on what I've missed. At least that's the plan, anyway, CJ.

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  5. Books are full of wonderful memories! Valerie

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  6. I look forward to seeing your favorite books, as that is right up my alley more than movies. A Christmas Carol is a great story. Dickens is a super writer who it is easier to appreciate as you get older. Will you include any more of his works? Hope you're getting all rain. Hugs-Erika

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    1. You'll have to check back to see what's on the list ๐Ÿ˜‰ And snow changed over to rain.

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  7. Charles Dickens ... one of the best authors.

    All the best Jan

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    1. I like this story. I can't say I've enjoyed all his stories.

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  8. A wonderful story and such a classic too! Happy weekend ๐Ÿ˜. Hugs, Jo x

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  9. My post must not have gone through yesterday. I remember saying that it would be nice to follow along.... Good idea about posting about your favorites. I'll enjoy that.

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    1. This is the first post on this thread from you that I have seen

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  10. I _loved_ my kiddie ballet and tap classes :) But I loved the library, too. Many a happy hour spent there. I find most people have seen an adaptation but never read the Christmas Carol book. It's a great read! I look forward to seeing which of your favorites I've read :)

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  11. This post brought back fond memories of going to the library for me. I hardly ever go now, and with covid-19, not at all until who knows when. And that is a great story. (One of my favorite movies, too, which I think we've discussed in the past.)

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