It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once said - something which I wholeheartedly agree with.

Today has been spent doing the usual, making sure there is enough money in the account for those end of month bills - thankfully I get paid on Tuesday and can't wait, though most of it is spent already:(

My youngest son also tried to bankrupt me in Waterstones as well. We had passed by it on the way to the building society (big mistake) and he asked if we could just have a look in there. I resisted the urge to buy any books to add to the pile that still have to be read, even though there were some lovely ones I keep meaning to buy on a 3 for 2 special offer :groan:. my son made up for this though by picking out a number of books that he liked the look of. Persuaded him to pick just one, on the premise that if he reads it to me and finishes it, we can buy another one.

I really don't mind buying books, I prefer to do this rather than visit the library. I am useless at taking books back and end up paying a massive amount of fines which defeats the point of going to save money really, so may as well just buy the book in the first place lol! Anyway the children tend to re read favourite books and even though youngest struggles I am always willing to buy anything he is interested in for him - struggle he may do but he eventually gets there and I feel the key to reading is not to read endless books in a reading scheme, some of which can be classed as boring, but to read something that engages the reader, that develops their enthusiasm or imagination.

At the moment youngest is upstairs sorting out the bulging bookcase in his room. He wants to get rid off all those books he considers babyish and build up his own library of books that he wants to keep and re read. Simon did the same thing a couple of years back, however like his mother, he is a little bit of a hoarder hence the fact there are two bookcases in his room that look as though they are about to collapse under the weight of books. Between us I am sure we could open up our own library.

There are books here that cover a variety of themes and topics. Some are fiction - historical, crime, sci fi, general chick lit, there are the non fiction ones - poetry, encyclopedias, information books full of facts that can be used in homework or just for general knowledge. I have lost count of the number of dictionaries we have, or thesauruses which can be found scattered around the house. All kinds of things can be found here and though a lot of them seem to be in paperback, they are in good condition. I have taught my children to love books, to respect them, to look after them well. They trawl through book catalogues - The book people, scholastic, looking for yet another one to add to their collection. Christmas lists always include a book of some sort to be bought as a gift. Their favourite pastime has always been to go to the bookshop in town and spend an hour or two looking through the books, money to search for 'the one' that will take them to an imaginary land.

The internet is a wonderful device full of information, good and bad, that can help any child achieve in life, but nothing, in my view, will ever replace a good book. As an American Educationalist once said:

A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them.