I confess I was going to write a tribute to my Mom today, but it just felt too personal for such a private person. So instead, for those who stop by, what is/was your Mom's favorite reading material.
My mother adored Janet Evanovich, Maeve Binchey and Stuart Woods. So I salute those writers today. What about you?
32 comments:
A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens.
My Mom read strictly for entertainment although she had a better grasp of current events than almost anyone. Funny, that.
I am blessed that my mother is still alive and in relatively good health for her age (almost 77). Although she finished school at 15, she has always been an avid reader, especially mysteries (we trade our favorites back and forth). Her favorite was Agatha Christie; she's re-read all of Christie's books many times (she laughs and says her memory is now so bad that she doesn't remember the plots anyway, so each time she re-reads, it's like a new book).
My mother taught me to read before I was three (I have no memory of never being able to read); took me to get my library card at the same age (first book checked out and read: CAT IN THE HAT); and never judged or censored my reading material (hence, reading THE CARPETBAGGERS at age nine and not really getting some of it). Right now, I have a pile of books at the foot of my bed waiting for me to box up and mail to her. I feel so blessed that she is still here and I can give them to her to read and enjoy.
It is so terrific to share interests like reading. My mother became more of a reader as she aged. In childhood, I don't remember her reading much. I was the only reader in the house.
My Mom raised five rambunctious children so she really didn't have time to read novels. But, each night after a day of work, she'd sit down and read a magazine. We had LIFE, LOOK, TIME, NEWSWEEK, THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, and a dozen others.
We had LIFE and LOOK too. And LADIES HOME JOURNAL.
My Mother read mostly religious books(Billy Graham until she'd read everything he rpoduced).
My Mom likes Mary Higgins Clark. A lot.
Herman Hesse, Scott Turrow, and crossword puzzle books.
Oh, gosh, my Mom was very religious and read Billy Graham all the time. AND she loved Mary Higgins Clark. Maybe we all had the same Mom.
That's quite a combo, Cullen. Like to meet the lady sometime. '
My Mom did the crossword puzzle every day. But not the NYT.
My wonderful mother is not much of a reader. When we were children, we always joked that if she sat down with the newspaper, she would fall asleep in two minutes. She has read the three manuscripts I have written in Danish, though, and she likes my stories very much. Do you think I am proud I am able to keep her awake???
As I have recounted here before, my mother read my stories (and Megan's) but was somewhat horrified that we wrote such fare. She always hoped we would write something uplifting.
My mom enjoys Bailey White and Ann B. Ross. And magazines; loads of magazines!
The only book I know that my mom read was A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. For a farm wife in 1940s Nebraska, it seems like an odd choice, but apparently it was so racy that I was told not to read it.
I really don't have an answer to what my mother read, but she always had a stack of books from the library and a pile of magazines. One of my earliest memories is my mother taking me to the library.
My mother seems to find murder more uplifting than the news - small wonder, really, as news always seem to mean bad news.
I think it was the theme of the father's alcoholism that troubled them.
Bailey White and Ann B. Ross-have to look them up.
Yes, my mother took me to a book mobile the first few times and after that I went on my own every Friday.
Magazines were clearly choice reading fare before the seventies.
If my mother read any books when I was growing up I never caught her at it. We did have subscriptions to Life, Look, and The Saturday Evening Post for many years, and I'm sure she thumbed through them. Nowadays she does crosswords. Oh, and she read my books and loved them.
You have to wonder if reading a book really was more popular then than now with the few readers among our Moms.
I understand completely, patti. I don't recall specific authors, but I know my mother read fiction and non-fiction avidly (my brother and I would bring the books she'd reserve home from the library). My mother never pushed, but I became a reader solely by her example. Although, in the last couple years of her life she became fascinated with the American psychic/spiritualist Edgar Cayce. Thanks.
Blogspot is eating my comments.
My mom was never a big reader. But when she did read, she enjoyed spanish language romance novels.
Happy Mother's Day back at you, Patti.
Blogspot gets hungry too.
And to you Yvette!
Yes, but to eat the comments twice when I've been thinking about my mother's reading habits during a fraught time did Nothing to improve my mood.
Hope your M-Day was a happy one.
It's why I choose my FFB this last Friday. But I have to admit her tastes changed over the years until she became pretty much a Danielle Steel book-type reader.
Oh, and she read all of the Reader's Digest Condensed books, there were a ton of them around. She said it was to save time, though she didn't really approve of abridged books, she made the exception for those. Sometimes she would then get a book she'd read there from the library to read the full version.
Thanks, Todd.
Richard-That's who I was trying to think of--that my mother read. She loved her too.
And RD filled our house. I always found them like eating crackers instead of a meal except for the jokes. But my mother and grandparents loved it.
Danielle Steel went out with Harlan Ellison sometime early in the '70s, and apparently took some lessons from his career example.
My mother reads anything on the bestseller list. Occasionally our tastes coincide (Michael Connelly, Lee Child) but she reads a lot of what I consider crappy thrillers (James Patterson, DA VINCI CODE) I wouldn't read.
Still, I credit her with my love of reading and libraries.
Jeff M.
Oh yeah, Danielle Steel is another of her favorites.
Jeff M.
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