Things are changing, but books are still great

Back when I was little -- and I'm not sure how old -- I discovered the world of books. I found I could become almost anyone and visit anywhere by reading the words in some book.

I loved to hunt, so I would read about Jack O'Conner and his hunting exploits. I was there when he used a .416 Rigby on an elephant and a Cape buffalo. Or I'd read a western and end up in a gunfight with some bad guy. I was there when one of the Sacketts put a world of hurt on the bad guy. It was a whole new world for me.

Probably the first books were school books. After we had eaten dinner at school and had recess, our teachers (Shirley, Mavis or Harold) would have us sit at our desks, and they would read to us. We could put our heads down and rest, but usually the book was interesting, so I'd listen. I loved books.

I also loved magazines. Two of my favorites were Boy's Life, put out by the Boy Scouts, and the other was Popular Mechanics. It had stuff you could build or learn from. Great magazine. Boy's Life was about learning how to camp or cook or survive if we had to.

My first real books were by Zane Grey. I could become Nevada, the young gunfighter -- read and reread his books. Ended up with a bunch of his books in paperback and hardback. I was at a garage sale in Wilmore, Kentucky, which is about 320 miles from here, and found they had a set of 90-some Zane Grey hardbacks for $20. Needless to say, I came home with them.

Some other authors I especially enjoy reading are Louis L'Amour, Marie Sandoz and Bonhoeffer. I like to mark in the books I read. I like to feel the book, to imagine myself diving into the words on the page where they were coming to life.

Today, our kids are reading electronic books. I believe one of them is the Nook. With one of these electronic books, one can have thousands of books virtually in the palm of one's hand. Honestly, you can have a whole library in a small book bag. You can read for years simply by turning on your device and diving in.

I carried a PalmPilot for years that had the entire Bible on it. I loved it; I could slip it in my shirt pocket, pull it out and read anywhere. If I wanted to hunt up a particular verse, it would find it in a heartbeat. Eventually, something went haywire, and it quit working. I hated that.

I have a friend who has a hard time reading, so he uses audio books. He uses some type of player which is small and portable so he can take it anywhere -- great for those who have trouble seeing well enough to read or those with a reading disorder.

I guess the point I am trying to make is there is a world of knowledge or information out there ready to be discovered. It doesn't matter whether it's an old book on holiness by Phoebe Palmer or an audio book or whatever; spend some time discovering something new. Start by turning off the TV and picking up something to read or listen to.

When Dad raised tomatoes back in Nebraska, he didn't stake or cage his tomatoes, so they would just lie on the ground. He had wonderful tomatoes, but in our moist, humid climate, this won't work. So I read about growing tomatoes in a cage made of concrete rebar wire. This really worked. Then when we got our high tunnels, I read about how different growers would hang a string down from above the tomato and wind this string around the main stem of the tomato. It really works. But I read about it.

Almost all our communities have public libraries that are accessible to anyone. If you have a computer hooked up to the Internet, all you have to do is do a Google search. The amount of information on the Internet is unreal.

Have a good one.

Until next time