Do you like to read? I do. I come by it honestly, MY DAD loves to read. I was at home last weekend and MY DAD started a little project. He decided to collect all of the books he had around the house, in some cases hidden, that he planned to read. In knitting language, he was gathering his stash together (there are some other hobby examples I’m sure, I know from the knitting).

MY DAD loves a bargain and often picks up books that are on sale, he also is a devoted reader of the New York Times book review and remembers the names of the books there, often seeking them out. He also is a frequent user of the public library system. He regularly places his name on a reserve list for a book and when it is available, he stops what ever else he is reading in order to read this book with a due date.

Man and his books to read

So, MY DAD started collecting books. He anticipated thee would be somewhere between 25-30, imagine his face when THE DIVA and I counted them up (including several books on his iPad in Kindle, iBooks, and Nook apps). The total was 173 books. As UNCLE H pointed out, if he reads one of these books every week he will be done in 3.5 years.

Being a person who likes books, I observed that there are some books here that are truly reference books. MY DAD works with new immigrants and in order to understand some of their cultural and religious cues, he has a copy of the Qur’an in this pile, as well as an introduction to Islam. He also has some classics of Jewish literature that I have in my own library like Heschel’s The Prophets, which I honestly can’t expect him to read cover-to-cover. There were also some doubles, The Reader by Schlink (probably because both MY MOM and MY DAD wanted to read it and didn’t realize there was already a copy in the house).

MY DAD decided he might have a problem. I think he has a wonderful hobby (and that might be because there is a box of books coming my way) and I am sure that he will donate most of these books to worthy causes when he finishes them.