Books – Fuel for Begrinners

I’ve always loved reading and books. Libraries and big box bookstores like Barnes & Noble excite me…I can spend time there indefinitely.

I learn well with written instructions. Arts/Crafts books and magazines have helped me try many new things. Over the years, my bookshelves filled, then overflowed with creative inspiration. Now, one wall of my office is devoted to my collection, which currently includes 1,759 items. It is almost all non-fiction, featuring quilting, beading, crochet, embroidery, doll-making, paper dolls, textile and fabric crafts, drawing, painting, collage, paper crafts, patterns and symmetry, and sheet music. My library changes all the time as I acquire and trade. I rarely buy books at retail–I use Paperbackswap.com and Bookmooch.com to trade, and regularly attend Friends of the Library used book sales to find new titles.

Before the internet, these books and magazines were sometimes the only local source of information for more arcane art forms. Now, when I can watch YouTube videos to see how to form a crochet stitch, why do I still want books?

A bookshelf filled with hand-selected books is like an annex of your brain…each title a reminder of something that caught your interest before. Everything is available on the internet, but you have to know what to request in the search field. Books edit for you…show you things that you don’t know that you want to see.