If you read nothing else, read these five

 

I don't know if it's parenting or just getting older but I cry at the strangest things. Once I watched The Rescuers with Daph when she was little and when the orphan Penny was told by Madam Madussa that she was a homely little girl and no one would ever want her, I cried....a lot. Granted, I was pregnant and that says a great deal.

My daughter has gotten used to my tears since I have been reading to her for years. For school I read her a book on Abe Lincoln and of course when he got shot, I started getting the high pitched, slightly squeaky timbre to my voice and she looked at me with her astonished face that quickly turned to her compassionate face. Same with Helen Keller when she finally came to the immense realization that every thing she touched had a name and she could communicate and understand with those names; she ran to Mrs. Keller and asked Anne what her name was. When Anne signed "mother" in Helen's hand I simply could not keep reading; I had to take a minute to weep.
 

So just a couple months ago when I read Daphne a book about Amelia Earhart and I got to the last chapter where her husband read the letter she had left for him in the event that she did not make it back from her flight around the world Daphne already new the water works were coming and she laid a sympathetic hand on my shoulder.
 

The same occurs when I hear of people who don't love to read or maybe just don't read... it makes me feel like crying for them; seriously, I get a little pang in my insides just thinking of all they miss. I could not imagine my world without my book friends and the wealth of knowledge I have had the pleasure to explore with them.  Sufficed to say, it is not easy to bring my recommendations down to five but I understand that a list of 50 is not palatable to the general populace and perhaps a number so small as five could be an attainable goal for many.

Reading is at once a sedative and a stimulant, an enhanced reality and a glorious escape. If you have not read these titles procure yourself a copy via Barnes, Amazon, the library, a handy internet option called Thriftbooks.com, or a blessed yard sale for pete's sake.

• Dracula. A powerful and spiritually stirring book full of adventure and true heroism. As a teenager I was deterred by the seeming dark subject matter, I mean, the notorious blood sucker, the blood sucker that was responsible for inspiring blood sucking fiction everywhere; but then I read it and wondered why I didn’t read it sooner. A must read.
• Pride and prejudice. Obviously this is one of the best books of all time and if you haven’t read it you couldn’t possibly be told why with enough eloquence so I will spare my words and simply say: Read it!
  
• How to win friends and influence people. This is only relevant if you ever come in contact with others of the human race. If you have kids, have parents, go to the grocery store, have co-workers, eat out, talk on the phone or basically live in the world of people, this is an excellent human relations resource.
• Gaining favor with God and man. Written in the 1800’s this book was out of print for a long time before being picked up by a connoisseur of great old literature and reprinted. When young, my dad read us a short chapter every night or morning as an augmentation of our usual devotions. You just don’t find a book like this every day. Valuable insights and, what has sadly become, old fashioned principles. Look for it on Amazon.
• Happiness is a serious problem. I have read a mountain of self help books maybe because I went thru a period where I really needed some help or maybe I have just found the encouragement to self evaluate, found in books like those, helpful in every day life. Regardless of this, Dennis Praeger really boils it all down in an intelligent and well-expressed 170 pages.

 “All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it’s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.”
― Dennis Prager

 

 “These friends - and he laid his hand on some of the books - have been good friends to me, and for some years past, ever since I had the idea of going to London, have given me many, many hours of pleasure. Through them I have come to know your great England; and to know her is to love her. I long to go through the crowded streets of your mighty London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is.”
― Bram Stoker, Dracula