My Love of Books, Jane Austen, and my Dad

by Jenny

 

Let me just say, I love books.

In case you don't know me well, I really love books.

For as long as I can remember, I have loved books.

 

I believe it's a love that my dad instilled in me. From the beginning of my memory, I can picture my dad laying on the couch with a book. Everything from bible commentaries to history of cowboys to How to...anything electrical. He had a ginormous stack of National Geographic's, I remember the tall tower of yellow bound magazines sitting everywhere. If we went to a used bookstore, a new bookstore, a garage sale, we always found a book we needed.

I remember a trip to Denver when I was in high school where we found ourselves at the base of a bookstore called Tattered Covered. It was huge. I think it was ten stories tall. (It may not have been quite that big but to me, a girl from a small mountain town with a school library in a modular building, it was amazingly huge.)

I believe we spent the whole day there, just him and me. We found separate corners, cozy couches, and plunked down with book after book. We didn't really have to speak, just look up at each other with a mutual fondness, love, of books. It is one of my fondest and most treasures moments with my now departed daddy.

I like to read just about anything. Just like my dad. I especially enjoy the "classics." A couple of summers ago, I decided I wanted to reread some of Jane Austen's books. I loved the ones I read in school and it had been a while, quite a while... So I decided to read all the books she authored in order of the years she wrote them in. I found after a long time of reading what I call "fluff books" I had to get used to the language she wrote in. I realized I was out of the habit of hearing intelligently written sentences with resplendent vocabulary. Jane Austen was one of the most amazing authors ever. She was adept at conveying a point very subtlety, where she had convinced you of her viewpoint and you weren't even aware the thought came from her. Other times, she was not so subtle, especially on her opinions regarding the intelligence (and often times, stupidity) of women... or gentlemen. When I came across this particular quote, it made me smile. I thought I would share a

not-so subtle statement from one of my all time favorite authors.

A statement I agree with wholeheartedly. And I think my dad would too.