The origins of the family library
Good morning everyone; I hope you’re enjoying Holy Week, or Semana Mayor as it’s known in some countries, that you’re resting, savouring traditional seasonal dishes and connecting with your spirituality.
This year I’m planning to do some spring cleaning at home; it’s just occurred to me that I could write a post about that. Well, that’s another matter. Today’s post focuses on a very common collection in homes: the book collection 📚.
There have always been books in my house, and I confess with some embarrassment that this is a collection which hasn’t been given the purpose it deserves, as the books in my house have been decorative objects. My father, who likes to hoard things, started with books. When he was newly married to my mother, he used to buy technology and mechanics magazines every weekend, such as Mecánica Popular; then he started buying book collections and acquired pine and wooden bookcases for those collections.
He always set aside part of his salary to buy books; my father is a hoarder of information and objects, a collector of various things. The thing is, he has so many books and so much information, yet he has only read a small percentage of them. In the past, it used to annoy me having to dust and clean books that he hadn’t even read himself, and also that he spent so much money on collections when there were other needs at home, but well, it was his money and I’d rather he spent it on books than on alcohol, gambling or other vices, as other people do.
Among the collections he has are those on electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, medicine, management, history and geography, amongst others. My father is the one with the habit of reading, though he only reads things related to his field of mechanical engineering. Thanks to him, I grew up in an environment surrounded by books, and that’s why I wanted to imitate my father in that regard, and I still do so to this day. 😅
When I started working at the age of 14, I decided to buy my own books, and every week I would look in the magazine and newspaper kiosks for a collection that came with the purchase of a magazine at a very good price. Sometimes they’d be sold out and I’d have to walk a long way to get hold of one; when I did, I felt immense joy, I was thrilled to hold it in my hands, and it went on like that for several months, as the complete collection comprised some 32 books.
This collection consists of mini-books covering various sciences: medicine, botany, zoology, human anatomy, palaeontology and geology. Half of each book contains information and the other half contains drawings to cut out and use in posters and written assignments. The information it contains isn’t basic; on the contrary, it’s very comprehensive and suitable for any level of education. Like my dad, I didn’t read them all, just a few, and I understood his true excitement at owning the collection.
In difficult times I wanted to sell my collection, but nobody bought it; today I’m glad about that. 😁 I’ve just decided to read them again, and this time from start to finish. I think it’s necessary to bring things full circle; I also have a collection of novels, but that’s for another time. I’ll sign off now; this is my contribution to the community’s book initiative. Thank you for the opportunity, and thank you for supporting my content 🥰.
