LITER ATURE
Why to Mark a Book by Leigh Lowe
IN
addition to the people, the books in my house are my treasures. Our books aren't rare or collectible. We usually buy paperbacks. The titles vary wildly; they run the gamut from Hop on Pop to City of God. I have a habit of hoarding favorites. I own several copies of my daily devotional because I'm constantly misplacing it along with my coffee cup, and I keep a few copies of C. S. Lewis: Readings and Meditations for Reflection by Walter Hooper because I like giving this favorite away. As an extrovert at home raising five children, books have become my everyday friends. I escape into a book when I want the world to be a little larger than my kitchen and my company to be a little wiser than my six-year-old. Books represent people to me—the authors Leigh Lowe is the daughter-in-law of Cheryl Lowe, founder of Memoria Press and Highlands Latin School. She worked closely with Cheryl for years, as a teacher, editor, and writer, helping to develop Cheryl's vision for classical education. Leigh is currently busy raising her five children with her husband, Brian.
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Why to Mark a Book
I dream of chatting up until dawn, the heroes I want in my foxhole, the saints who straighten my path. My books don't only connect me to people I wish I knew, however. They connect me, in a very special way, with people I love from afar. The books in my house have been marked; I get to hear voices that would otherwise be silent. When my mother-in-law, Cheryl Lowe, passed away, my father-in-law knowingly gave me her books. This was one of the most endearing gifts I have ever received. Seeing her titles, I know her better. It is as if she were sitting with me and telling me her life story. Evident on the shelves are her interests, her passions, her whims. By a landslide, her books on religion win for quantity; she had three shelves of Bibles alone. Of course, there are Latin books—lots of them—and history also shows up in spades. But her collection is well-rounded. She was a chemist with a research mind, so I received more books than I'll ever read on the sciences, plus every available MemoriaPress.com
