Christopher Columbus

I don't suppose anyone wants to read about my shopping, or housework or ironing so I won't mention them. Though I should say that I find ironing most relaxing especially with some good radio to listen to and here in the UK we are blessed with good old Radio 4. Although if I'm feeling particularly virtuous I listen to one of my Spanish Cd's, thereby improving my mind, keeping fit with the iron and getting nicely pressed shirts into the bargain.

For as long as I can remember I've had books in my life. I just can't imagine life without books. When I was a boy there were always books in our house, though not necessarily ones that I would be reading nowadays. There was a cupboard to the right of the old fireplace, with it's peat fire burning away, which was full of my father's books. There was a pile of old bibles in Gaelic and English, though mostly Gaelic, and the rest theological works of one kind or another. He used to read all these heavy theological works, by reformed theologians, whose names now escape me, other than one called John Owen, who was particularly keen on "justification by faith". He used to get all these books from some book club he belonged to. I should remember the name but I'm afraid it's gone. He must have had more books than many ministers had.

There was also a ten volume encyclopedia, with beautiful red covers which I remember him buying from some salesman who came round the doors. I still remember reading it and being enthralled by the stories and pictures  from all over the world. I especially remember a photo of the Taj Mahal impressing me enormously and thinking that one day I would see it for real. I still have that dream. I don't remember any pictures or stories from Peru or South America, but I guess there must have been some

One time I'd been reading about Christopher Columbus and his trip to "discover" America and the next day old Fury, our headmaster, and a whole other story, but you can guess from his name what kind of fellow he was, asked if anyone knew the name of Columbus' ship. How he thought that anyone  from that bunch of scholars should know it is beyond me, but you can imagine his surprise when I was able to tell him. In case you're interested it was called the Santa Maria.

There was also some lighter reading such as accounts of the escapades of various Presbyterian missionaries as they sought to convert the world, and especially Africa and India, to their very own version of Christianity. And of course we had "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan, bits of which I still remember. Such was our Sunday reading material. Though as the years passed we diversified a bit by going to bed early on the Sabbath and reading illicit material such as Biggles Flies West, or some such.

I started writing this thinking about my reading habits, but ended up somewhere else, so will have to come back to my love of reading at another time.