I'm apparently having a 'nostalgia week' or something.  After posting the images of the restaurant matchbooks last week I was in our basement office (not an actively used room at the moment as it's been the family storage locker recently...) and repeatedly bumped into books that have significant meaning for me.  These are all books that I have or will be introducing our daughters to at some point...

Thought I'd share a few just because I'm in the mood to think about these wonderful books...  They make me happy.

 

Cache Lake Country

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cache Lake Country is my all-time favorite book ever!  No contest.  I got this book from my grandfather's book shelf (as well as a number of others that I'll mention below) one day while poking around in his bedroom book shelf.  This book is still in publication (I think) and is the most wonderful nature and man book I've read.  It's not a man vs. nature, it's not a crunchy 'back to nature' story.  It's the writings of a guy that actually lives in the middle of the North woods for his job and lives in an unspoiled part of the world.  When I was a kid, this is the life that I thought I wanted - the author wrote in so relaxed a style and was so personable and interesting and happy...  Read this - it's wonderful.

 

 High Road to Glory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a book that I think my father had when he was little, but it's a collection of stories about knights and maidens and warriors of old.  My other great interest when I was a kid - I loved nature and I loved medieval 'stuff'.  I ended up going to school for forestry, but medieval history was looked into...  Regardless, this is from the time when stories weren't fully sanitized for fragile young minds - the stories are a good collection for kids that are into this sort of thing and don't assume that the reader is an idiot.  I like this book and have had others in either the same series or one like it...

 

For Love of Mother-Not

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the first of the Flinx books from Alan Dean Foster and where I first got introduced to the Commonwealth.  While I certainly love Asimov's Foundation series as well and other works of Science Fiction greatness, this book is one that will always be at the top of my list.  I read this book at least once per year.  I love the detail that Foster puts into his writing and how much thinking and creating he does as he develops characters, but also settings, how economics works, space travel, clothing, wildlife, transportation, religion, etc., etc.   He obviously enjoys thinking through these details and the joy comes through in his writing - these are worlds that I would want to see and characters that are interesting and fun.  This book was the start of that for me and I love it.

 

The Hobbit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I figure that I don't need to say much about this book.  I read it for the first time in elementary school and was floored by the way that Tolkien wrote - he told a big story, with big concepts, and he wrote-in details that made the story seem like it was taking place in a real world with real history.  It wasn't just constructed for the story - it was a story taking place in a larger world that existed outside of the story - with side stories, mythology, references to famous people of the past, etc.  I like that there are constantly references to places that you never actually see.  They are mentioned by characters or referenced in some way (and they are on the maps!), but you don't get to go there.   I like that - it makes the story richer and more enjoyable for some reason.  I also like the Hobbit (slightly better than the Lord of the Rings) because it's a fun story - it's written with humor.

 

 

Alex Crittenden