I am so glad that as they have grown my children have gained an appreciation for books.
This year as a Christmas gift I gave my girls a book crawl and this weekend was the weekend for it.
Friday night I picked up James, my daughter Melanie’s fiancé in CT and brought him back to MA.
We met at my ex-wife’s house for dinner and to make plans for the wedding. Once my oldest daughter got home from work we headed to my house for a long winter’s nap before our Saturday drive.
On Saturday morning we left Winchendon at 8:30 A.M. and headed South.
Our first stop was Tatnuck Booksellers in Westbourough. I found a comfortable chair and opened my Kindle to read while the kids poked around.
They found nothing at bookstore number 1 but at bookstore number 2 in Worcester we hit pay dirt.
James at Annie’s Bookstore
Melanie in YA section at Annie’s
Amanda is a quick shopper. Melanie and James are consummate browsers. After two hours Amanda had a bag full of books and Melanie and James were still weighing their options. So I took Amanda on a walk back into childhood.
Me and Amanda reading Dr. Seuss.
By the time we finished we were all famished. I was truly ready for a cup of coffee
Then it was on to Niantic CT for a crawl through the Book Barn.
Amanda at the Book Barn
James and Melanie
Since James and Melanie both had to be back at their respective churches for ministry on Sunday morning we wrapped it up at the Book Barn and then I dropped James back off in Oakdale CT (he is a children’s minister in Norwich CT) and then we shot up to Haverhill MA for Melanie’s house (she is a children’s minster in Saugus MA). Amanda and I got in just before 11 and settled in for a good night’s rest before our ministry calls at Cornerstone (Amanda does children’s ministry at Cornerstone and I had to lead worship)
It was a great 14 hour day. One old wrinkly minister and three young eager ministers now each have ten more books to read!
Lillie-Put 
That is the BEST idea!!!!!! Our two LOVE going to book stores, we’ll have to steal this one 🙂 Want to come with us Uncle Jay?
We were just discussing Dr. Seuss with Sandy’s sister-in-law this past weekend. Her sister-in-law works at the daycare center at Hanscom Air force Base and I believe “Yertle the Turtle” was mentioned. lol It sounds like it was a successful trip for all!
It was truly awesome!
And so now I get the Yertle the Turtle reference. You crack me up!
I read Seuss to the kids just about every night when they were little. Yertle was one of my favorites but Amanda didn’t remember the book until we got to Gertrude McPhuzz.
I read them too. My youngest heard Go Dog Go a 1000 times. It’s one of my favorites. I get very animated and excited reading it. The kids love it!
Even now as adults they love them. I cannot wait until I have grandchildren to read them too.
What a wonderful gift! When I was a child one of my gramma’s gave me books at Christmas and my birthday every year. I would read them to her. She grew up very poor and left school in the second grade to go to work…hard for me to imagine…so she really could not read. Her gift to me was the books my gift to her was to read them to her.
That is so awesome. Thank you for sharing this wonderful and touching story.
Have you seen the Dr. Seuss collection in Northampton? We saw it a number of years ago. It’s on display until March 9th, and then it will go on its nationwide tour. (Pretty sure it’s coming back home to MA when it’s done touring).http://www.drseussart.com/hatsoff/dates.html
I have not. Methinks I shall have to take a tour when it comes back. My schedule is pretty well booked solid this week.
What a fun experience! LOVE bookstores!
It was great fun!