My Parents Gave Me a House of Books

Followers of Two Sides might remember that my father died a few weeks ago. Lory and I did an episode, The Other Ted Zaleski, on January 14th. I told Lory about growing up in a ‘house of books’.

A few days ago, my mother died.

I don’t remember my mother reading to me, but it seems likely that she did. Or, maybe I was one of those kids that said, “No, I can do it.” I don’t know if she read to me, but I know she must have had a hand in all the kid’s books we had.

We had piles of Golden Books and other books for young readers. We didn’t have much money. I don’t know how we got so many books. Somehow she found a way and, yes, I feel sure that she was the one that made it happen. She was pretty amazing at Christmas time too.

In my father’s episode, I mostly talked about books for older readers, often books that were for older readers than me. When I talked about my father, I talked about his reading being heavily nonfiction. I think I said that I couldn’t say he never read fiction, but I couldn’t tell you a fiction book that he read. And, he was a dabbler. He would read a little here and a little there.

My mother couldn’t have been more different. I can’t say that she didn’t read nonfiction, but I couldn’t name a book. She read fiction. She read a lot of romance novels, but not exclusively. As best I know, she finished the books she started. There was a period in her life when she read on a Kindle. Late in her life she wasn’t reading as much; maybe even no books, but she still read magazines.

Lory and I have so many episode ideas piling up that it is hard to know what we are going to get to. I’m hoping that we will talk about this sometime. I grew up in a ‘house of books’, and both my mother and father played a role in that.

Have a story about books in your house when you were growing up? Let us know at twosides2thestory@yahoo.com