books are our friends

What is it with books? I unpacked books from childhood, growing up, college and Japan, okay, basically my life and it was like greeting old friends.
Hello, old friends! Nice to see you.
If I get to only pick one thing to move with me to California when I marry it would be my books. There were so many treasures inside the books. I'm not talking about the journals, people. Those are a blog entry all on their own (oh, the musings of a 18 year old brought laughter and tears to my heart)!
I'm just talking about the beautiful books. I filled about three printer paper size boxes full of my C.S. Lewis, LM Montgemory, Tolkien, Austen, Piper, Carey and more... oh, the hard bound and the paperback. The childhood fictional love novels and the books that taught me to grow in my faith. Oh, sweet Jerry Bridges, how I love how much you taught me when I was first learning about faith and how awesome it is now to have sat across a table with you, talking about "normal people" topics.
I have books for when I struggled and books for when I soared.
Old favorites and new. Classics and books that I received as a gift because the main characters name was "Joanna"....
oh, what adventure books hold, not just inside their covers and written on their pages but also in the memory of having sat down with a cup of java and reading them.
Books are like friends.
The books that smell musty because they've been in print since before I was born and possibly since before my parents were born. The books that haven't been opened yet but are still on my "to read" list. My precious books with worn edges, loose pages and little notes on the side.
Oh I have so many plans for these friends of mine. I'm going to ship them to California and enjoy unpacking them and seeing them. Books are so wonderful, aren't they?