read a book lately?

the baron noticed this book shelf the other day - well, in truth, it's not a "shelf" as much as it's a "table top". this is because the baron and the husband have more books than shelf space. in fact, many of their books are still in boxes, never unpacked from the move to maryland from arizona.

anyway, the baron was looking at this table top assortment of books recently, and realized just how many of them there are among her favorites - it seemed an uncanny coincidence that these favorite books were clumped together. 'smoke and mirrors', for example, is by neil gaiman, among her favorite authors (and author of her favorite short story, called 'baby cakes'). that slim green one, to the left of 'the dogs who found me', is called 'ex libris: confessions of a common reader', by anne fadiman. it's a collection of short essays all about reading, and the baron would read anything fadiman wrote (in fact, she is now reading a collection of essays edited by fadiman called 'rereadings'). this one, 'ex libris', she takes on planes so the husband will know she was reading something good - as opposed to skymall - if the plane goes down. that thick spine - 'the one and only anastasia'? it's actually 4 books in a set; they're from her early teenage years, a gift from her grandmother. it's a series of books about a young girl living in massachusetts, and represent the baron's first exposure to white liberalism. (it is worth mentioning, maybe, that both the baron's parents were politically conservative, so anastastia and her family were very exciting.) she reads them now and again, and their sophistication surprises and delights her still.

maybe her favorite book ever, of ALL TIME, is also on that table top. it's the tatty looking brown one to the right of 'the dogs who found me', the one with the damaged spine (the baron's 13 year old self thought the spine of 'the westing game' could sub in for a hammer, as she had a picture to hang... it turns out, not so much). it's a children's book, a mystery, and it's wonderful, so wonderful that she reads it every year (it's also one of those take-for-plane-travel books), so wonderful that when the husband and the baron were a-courtin' she read it to him over a few weeks time, when they were in her quiet basement apartment on her single bed. on that first reading, the husband liked 'the westing game', and his appreciation of the book enriched her appreciation of him. it is, the baron thinks, a very important book indeed.