I FALL INTO THE RABBIT HOLE--Confessions of a Bookaholic, II

Poor Alice!


A kindly neighbor of my grandmother gave me a beautiful copy of Alice In Wonderland with the original illustrations.  I was thrilled!  I placed it in my nearly empty personal bookcase alongside Cherry Ames, Student Nurse and Trixie Belden.  Then Nana gave me a full collection of Louisa May Alcott's children's books--Little Women, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom, Jo's Boys  and several more--which had come to her from her mother (years later I realized these book may have been First Editions but at the time I was just thrilled to get them.)  There were also several collections of small books bound in golden leather which I treasured.  They had names like Dottie Dimple and were far too young for me, but I thought the books themselves were lovely.

Years later I won a drama scholarship and went off to Wesleyan College in Georgia, leaving my beloved books behind.  When I came home for Thanksgiving, I rushed to my old room and found it quite changed--my two older brothers slept there now.  My books were gone.

"Mom, where are my books?"  "What books?"  "My books that were in my bookcase.  Are they in the garage?"
"Oh, no, they were old.  I threw them away," she said.