My three treasure chests line a wall in my living room.
They’re wooden, stand about 6 feet tall and have five shelves each.
And they’re filled with all types of jewels.
The value of my treasure is immeasurable, priceless, even though the insurance payout on any loss might amount to less than $100.
My treasure consists of about 500 books — paperback and hardcover, fiction and nonfiction, classic literature and easy beach reads.
One bit of treasure cost 75 cents in 1972. The old Scholastic Inc. version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” sits on a top shelf, with other collectibles from childhood.
I need only to see the paperback’s spine to remember Jim Hawkin’s tale and to think, “Treasure, books are treasure.”
I wouldn’t exchange my old, tattered copy of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” for cold cash.
I’d rather have my new copy of Philip Kennedy’s “The Bird: The Great Age of Avian Illustration” than a strand of pearls.
This time of year, my treasure grows. For at least a decade, my wife has given me a “Christmas book.”
Usually I identify my “Christmas book” while reading the books section in the Sunday edition of The New York Times, tear out the page and give Connie “the clue.”
But this year, I struggled to choose one title.
“The Bird” isn’t on my Christmas list because that gem of a hardcover got added to the treasure shelves earlier in the year, but finalists included:
- “Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life: The Plants and Places that Inspired the Classic Children’s Tales,” by Marta McDowell and full of watercolors and sketches, letters and notes by a blossoming writer and gardener.
- “Southeast Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Angelic to Wild Plums” by Chris Bennett and providing a seasonal guide to identifying safe plants for harvest.
- “The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of our Most Essential Native Trees” by Douglas W. Tallamy and about the champions of carbon sequestration, soil stabilization and watershed management.
- “Botanical Art Techniques” by the American Society of Botanical Artists and about illustrating flowers and other plants.
But ultimately, I shouted, “This is the book!” to Connie when I heard an NPR story about “The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses.”
Author Kevin Birmingham’s prize-winning story is about the creation and publication of a masterpiece, a revolutionary novel, about a day in the life of Leopold Bloom and so very much more.
Yes, there will be treasure under my Christmas tree.