Books, books, and more books

Today was our day to steam clean the carpets.  We put it off until today because this was the first rainy weekend we've had in what seems like forever.  I moved all the family room furniture into the kitchen and crammed as much of the dining room into the hall as I could.  Then I cleared out the play room.  I wondered in the back of my mind what the girls would do while they were not allowed in the wet areas, and no TV all morning.  Once again, we don't give children the credit they deserve.  Here's how I found them, curled up together on our lounge chair which was shoved under the kitchen table.  Reading!

They thought this was like a grand new adventure.  They both thought it was hilarious that our furniture was in the kitchen.  They certainly weren't bothered by it one bit. 
This gave me the opportunity to go through the book box.  Our family loves to read.  We have countless books.  A couple years ago I decided that the books needed to be kept in one place, so we came up with the "book box".

Not usually this neat

These are just our 'family room books'.  We have more in the play room, and each of the girls has their own book shelf upstairs.  Tia prefers to keep her special Princess collection up in her own room where she can keep them away from her baby sister.
Anyway, I thought I could make a dent in the book box and bring some to the Good Will.  Not such an easy task after all.  It's not just that the kids don't want to part with any of the books, but I too have my favorites that I won't give up.
In most areas I'm the exact opposite of those "Hoarders" you see on that new TV show.  I get rid of just about everything!  I have at least one Good Will bag ready each week, and I often give hefty amounts of clothes to other friends who have little girls.  But for some reason I can't do that with books.  I'm a book hoarder! 
Since I was going through the box, I thought I'd share with you some of my most favorites.

I consider these to be the classics.  I can remember hearing "Harold and the Purple Crayon" when I was a little girls and I thought it was fantastic.  It's the first book I ever bought Tia as a gift.  "Where the Wild Things Are" is another one of my own childhood favorites.  I didn't become a Dr. Seuss fan until I became a mother.  Now I can't get enough.
So, after all that I only pulled one book out to give away.  The rest are with us for a while longer.  I'll live with the occasional book clutter because it means I have kids who love to read.  That's good enough for me.