I’ve actually got an unexpected fifteen minute break in my schedule which is quite nice considering the deck is a collection of some favorite things: a strong breeze mastering five sets of wind chimes, sounds of nature and Shroyer Road traffic, and four dogs, thrilled that I’m away from my desk.

I saw this familiar quote by Marcus Tullius Cicero:

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”

It’s certainly true for me. Every room inside The Haasienda has bookcases filled with the result of a life-long passion of collecting books.

My sons would joke to me upon leaving a store with an armful of books. “You’re probably not going to read them.”

Perhaps not. But they will always be there should I ever wish to read them.

One of the greatest pre-kindergarten moments came around 1968 when my parents purchased the complete set of The World Book Encyclopedias and solid wood book stand.

The top row was A-Z; the second row had sectioned ends for a double dictionary and something else for the opposite end with a centered collection of individual books of cooking, countries around the world, poetry, famous people, science, nursery rhymes and children’s stories, etc.

There was a long shelf on the bookcase’s bottom that held the gigantic atlas. It was one of my favorite books and I would pull at it and finally slide the weighty book from the shelf and travel through the pages for hours.

While the books are long gone, the bookcase is still in my possession, fifty some odd years later. It’s traveled from Elwood, Indiana to Ball State University in Muncie, from Muncie to Dayton, Ohio and on to Centerville and Kettering.

I love that book case.

As a young tyke, the treasure-filled structure was a crib to rest my energetic mind, my television, my escape from my father’s alcoholism, my very own Disney World of delight, my cruise ship and air plane so I could explore all the different states on the American continent or other countries that I eventually got to visit, and it was a great water tank to continuously fill my ever draining cup that wetted my thirst for learning more, and more.

It’s not just a bookcase.