The Book Collection

Stuart’s bedroom bookshelf

Once upon a time, there was a very little boy. He had hair the color of the sunshine and eyes like the bluest sea. This boy loved to read. He learned early and never stopped. His love for books and reading was expansive. He loved many genres and surely learned so much from the pages he read. He laughed at Calvin and Hobbs, memorized stats from baseball books, learned about Michael Jordan in “Jordan Rules,” and got to know Bo in “Bo knows Bo!” He was sad when he read his first book where a child died – “The Bridge To Terabithia” (he read early, so he was probably too young for such loss).

At age six, he read the newspaper like it was his job. As a matter of fact, he made it his job by telling us the weather for the day so we could dress appropriately! Many times, he chastised his siblings for dressing wrong for the weather.

They loved that! 😐

On any road trip (meaning a trip to anywhere- grocery store, mall, school…) he had a book along for the pleasure of using his time to soak in the words of whatever interested him at the moment. He always sat in the “way back” so he could block out everyone else.

That makes it seem like he was anti-social, which is far from the truth. He was very active, loved sports, the outdoors, and being with crowds of people. He enjoyed talking about as much as reading!

I digress… books. We are talking about books.

His love for reading only grew as he did. He developed a passion for history and devoured books on the subject. He enjoyed politics and especially loved Ronald Reagan. He and his His Nannie (grandmother) sent books and newspaper articles about Reagan back and forth for years.

As technology developed, he did read some things on devices, but he (like me) preferred an actual book or paper in hand.

This is how he came to have a gazillion books. When Stuart went to heaven, and we packed his house, we had over 50 book boxes stuffed with books! That’s a lot of books. Our son, Parker can tell you, they were very heavy too.

For three and half years, I wondered how to go through and preserve his books. I hope to have them for his girls to go through some day. Boxed up in the basement couldn’t be a long-term solution, as I want them to be in excellent shape (and they were treasures to Stuart). We finally decided to have a bookshelf built in a niche’ in our dining room. We sold the china cabinet that was in there and finally found someone I trusted to build it.

The finished product

It turned out great! The next step was getting all of those books up the basement stairs! They were so heavy that I had to take a few out at the time and Isaiah and Kobi took armload after armload of books to the dining room.

Then came the daunting task of deciding what to keep. The mom part of me wanted to keep them all. The realistic part knew that was impossible (if I was to keep them out of the basement). I went through each box and made the decision to keep or not. It wasn’t easy!

He had so many books from childhood (kept), but also a ton of books on the economy (ditched). I found many books given to him as gifts and inscribed with kind words from friends (kept). After it was all done, we still donated 16 overflowing book boxes!
With that task complete, came the placement on the shelves. The ultimate goal was to house as many books as possible, but given that it is in the dining room, I wanted it to look decent too.

I don’t claim to be a decorator, so I just gave I my best shot and proclaimed a victory!

Saving Stuart’s books for Mimi and Cozie

{And the cabinets beneath the shelves-jam packed with books!}

When his girls saw it – they loved it and enjoyed seeing his books again. While Cozie did gymnastics in the foyer (she needed to show us her skills). Mimi looked over her dad’s vast library. Out of all the books, she asked to see one that really “looks interesting,” a book titled “Ancient History”!

She is her father’s child. Cozie isn’t a book lover right now (maybe never), but her silly antics, quick wit, and facial expressions are all Stuart!

The books he loved are here, waiting for his girls to go through one day. They will surely keep a few and do away with many—that will be their choice. I’m thankful to be able to have them here when the time comes.

At this point, I am the memory keeper. And I want to be sure the memories of Stuart continue through the years. He was well loved, so I have no doubt that when I’m long gone and a memory myself, his will be alive and thriving.

I will do my best for him.

Stuart’s favorite Book