Books

among the most wonderful things that my mother ever did for me was that she made an avid reader of me. In Cairo, it was not always easy to find good books in English for a growing boy, yet I always had a large stock of them; when we finally gained access to a good library in Cairo (the All Saints Cathedral Library in Zamalek), I had so many books that we ended up donating nine boxes of them to it.

Mom had the most wonderful taste in books that she got for me, and she didn't stop when we gained access to the library, either. Some of the books she provided me with are still among my favorite books in the world. I cannot begin to remember them all, but here is a sample list:

The Adventures of Remi,
All of the Oz books,
The Complete Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes,
Robinson Crusoe,
The Three Musketeers,
The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain,
Steinbeck's King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table,
A Bell for Adano,
Shelley's Frankenstein,
and Cheaper by the Dozen.

In addition, she offered me her own books. If you knew my mother at all, you know what quality books she had. From her collection I came to love P.G. Wodehouse, Rex Stout, Ngaio Marsh, Agatha Christie, and many others.

Mom also taught me a very important lesson; at one time I had this belief that I really should read certain books such as Shakespeare's major works, Homer, Ovid, Virgil, Dante, Thomas Moore, Poe, etc. Whan I complained to her that I am really struggling with Dante (I can't read poetry to save my life except, maybe, for Poe), she asked me why I was subjecting myself to something that I clearly was not enjoying. When I gave her my rationale, she, as was her wont, made it look so simple; she told me that there are so many wonderful books out there that it is enough to read those among them that I enjoy to get the same well-rounded education, and that self-inflicted suffering really should not be part of the process.

So, I read Hamlet and the Merchant of Venice, but I passed on Romeo and Juliet (I love the language, but the plot is tripe). I never attempted Ovid, Virgil, and Dante, but I did read the Iliad and the Oddessey, as well as More's Utopia. Mom bequeathed to me her Faulkner books. Maybe I'll give that a shot someday soon.