First, a warm thank-you to everyone who has had the Short family in your thoughts on the passing of Granny. We had some very nice times remembering Granny as a family. The viewing and funeral were as nice as they can be and our private interment was special. It was wonderful having both Amy & Rachel in for the occasion. We even played some Shanghai Rum on the day of the interment – Amy playing the grumpy one in honor of Granny.

Second – the topic of this post. As I mentioned in my retrospect to Granny, she was quite the avid reader. This week when the folks were at the local library, the librarian there gave them the laminated card which they’d made for Granny when she requested books. (Normally it’s just a disposable card, but for big-time regulars like Granny, they laminate them.) The librarian decided to look up on the computer just how many books Granny had taken out since 1992 when they started keeping computer records. And just for grins, she also looked up dad & mom’s book counts. Mom has a respectable 350+ books and dad over 400 books. And Granny? 1716 books! And that’s only since 1992 and only the library books that she read. She was also a member of the Book of the Month Club and her sisters often gave her old paperbacks to read as well.

It’s no surprise, then, that she had to mark books once she read them. She used pencil and made a faint asterisk on the inside cover near the crease. Mom’s taken to following her example and does a similar faint penciled “ls” in the same general area when she takes out a book. As a former librarian, that was the most that Granny could do to mark up a book.

The Oakes Beitman Memorial Library has received a number of cash donations in Granny’s name. They’re delighted and are currently deciding what to do with the money. One thought is to use the money to train one of their employees on how to repair books. When Granny was a librarian, that was her specialty. Heh. Whatever they do with the money will be something that Granny would have liked. Reading was her favorite pastime and it’s nice to know that even in her death, she’s helping the cause of reading.

Now, as for me and my goal to read for 30 minutes every day, I’ve been doing pretty well. There have only been a couple of days when I haven’t been able to do that. (The exercising has taken a hit since Granny’s death, however. I hope to rectify that today!) And so far for 2006, I’ve finished seven books. Maybe this will finally be the year that I manage to read 50 books! That’s nothing on Granny’s 132 library books a year, however! So I think I’ve got a ways to go to catch up with her. But I won’t mind the challenge! I love reading. 🙂