(no subject)
Stopped by Goodwill today after my dance lesson to pick up some books to tide me over until my stuff from paperbackswap.com comes. I made a couple of really great finds, a copy of Time Traveller's Wife to replace my falling-apart one, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell for Patrick, Anne-Marie MacDonald's (she wrote Fall on Your Knees) second book, The Way the Crow Flies. And I found a first edition copy of Black Beauty. When I opened it up I found the following inscription (s).
1940 To Norma Jean and Joanne from Evelyn
and
To Cara, from Norma Jean (Grandma W), Sept. 1998
It made me so so sad to see that there, in the Goodwill, with all the other cast-off books, that I started bawling. Anytime I come across a book with an inscription it makes me sad, and I have to buy it, because I think of the person who owned the book before. But this was just...tragic to me. Norma Jean loved this book, and she gave it to her granddaughter probably with the hope, or at least the idea, that her granddaughter would keep it forever, or maybe one day give it to her own granddaughter. But her granddaughter just threw it away, with her copies of A Separate Peace or Beloved, things she read in school and didn't want anymore. I treasure every thing each of my grandmothers ever gave me, including gross, nasty knitted potholders that Mammaw made when I moved into my first apartment 6 years ago, which I should really throw away but can't because she made them and they remind me of her. I can't imagine just tossing away a book that read as a child, that she gave to me, and inscribed to me.
James said that maybe the little girl, Cara, died, but that's sad, too.
I had to take the book home with me. I felt like I couldn't leave it there, alone. Like it was a poor, bedraggled kitten or something. I had to take it home, and I put it on my shelves with my Anne books so that it won't be lonely. I keep walking into the room and giving it little pats, so it knows that I appreciate it, even if its former owners did it. It's silly to think a book has feelings, but it makes me feel less sad. I'm not a huge fan of Black Beauty, so if any of you are (and promise to love this book), you can have it. I will mail/give it to you. But you have to promise to love it. This book has had a hard time of it, y'all.
I keep thinking that maybe Cara didn't mean to give it away--it just got caught up in the mix--and I did a Google search with the names "Norma Jean," "Joanne," "Evelyn," and "Cara," but I didn't find anything.
I miss my Mammaw, and my Grandma Lois. That's probably most of what this is about. I miss them every day.
1940 To Norma Jean and Joanne from Evelyn
and
To Cara, from Norma Jean (Grandma W), Sept. 1998
It made me so so sad to see that there, in the Goodwill, with all the other cast-off books, that I started bawling. Anytime I come across a book with an inscription it makes me sad, and I have to buy it, because I think of the person who owned the book before. But this was just...tragic to me. Norma Jean loved this book, and she gave it to her granddaughter probably with the hope, or at least the idea, that her granddaughter would keep it forever, or maybe one day give it to her own granddaughter. But her granddaughter just threw it away, with her copies of A Separate Peace or Beloved, things she read in school and didn't want anymore. I treasure every thing each of my grandmothers ever gave me, including gross, nasty knitted potholders that Mammaw made when I moved into my first apartment 6 years ago, which I should really throw away but can't because she made them and they remind me of her. I can't imagine just tossing away a book that read as a child, that she gave to me, and inscribed to me.
James said that maybe the little girl, Cara, died, but that's sad, too.
I had to take the book home with me. I felt like I couldn't leave it there, alone. Like it was a poor, bedraggled kitten or something. I had to take it home, and I put it on my shelves with my Anne books so that it won't be lonely. I keep walking into the room and giving it little pats, so it knows that I appreciate it, even if its former owners did it. It's silly to think a book has feelings, but it makes me feel less sad. I'm not a huge fan of Black Beauty, so if any of you are (and promise to love this book), you can have it. I will mail/give it to you. But you have to promise to love it. This book has had a hard time of it, y'all.
I keep thinking that maybe Cara didn't mean to give it away--it just got caught up in the mix--and I did a Google search with the names "Norma Jean," "Joanne," "Evelyn," and "Cara," but I didn't find anything.
I miss my Mammaw, and my Grandma Lois. That's probably most of what this is about. I miss them every day.