Catching the Reading Bug

This blog got its start 18 years ago, just before our 25th reunion. Granted, it's not always been very active, but if anything important happens, it generally gets mentioned here. All of our classmate's passings in that time have been covered in this blog along with their obituaries. Sometimes that makes me feel a bit sad so I've tried occasionally to add some articles to entertain you. And Mr. Lynch has contributed some articles too. And if any of you feel like sharing a story you think might be of interest, you're always welcome to contribute.

In this blog in 2003, I wrote about a book that I had read as a youth. It was the first 'real' book I can recall finishing (not counting Dr. Seuss books :-) and I loved it. It was on a bookshelf in the back of our 4th grade classroom at St. John's and was entitled 'The Mystery of the Great Swamp' by Marjorie Zapf. I just re-read it AGAIN and still enjoyed it after all these years.

I often wished I could have shared with the author how it changed my life. Prior to reading that book, I had no interest in reading. After I read it, it turned me into a life-long reader. I still read a lot of books every year, although some of them I actually listen to while I take walks. I understand I'm in a minority. Some people, upon graduating from high school or college never read another book again, ever. And it is not a minority, it is around 80% of the population. So if you read books, count yourself among the minority. As Mark Twain once said, "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."

I recently did a search on the Marjorie Zapf's name and found that she lived only an hour from my home in Colorado down near Boulder. What are the odds of that? Unfortunately, she passed away 18 years ago. In her husband's obituary, I found a tribute from someone who had a personal connection with both of them. I decided to reach out to him to see how writing that book had affected her life. It turns out that Mrs. Zapf was an elementary school teacher and the book was very successful, causing a ton of mail from students expressing their appreciation with fan letters. She had a 3-drawer filing cabinet full of correspondence with readers from around the country. The time and expense in keeping up with all of the correspondence made her feel that writing any more books would not be a good use of her time!

It made me feel a bit relieved that I never did track her down to express my appreciation. I guess fame comes at a cost.

Speaking of cost, has anyone noticed that Amazon has some ridiculous prices on "new" old books? Take a gander at this:

I have a hard cover copy of this book that looks new, and it cost me about $4 with shipping so I'm feeling rich ;-). If you buy it through the link below you can get a used version of the book at a much better price.