Reading the Ages

Books have been my passion for a very long time.What is an age? In my case I have been reading since the very very end of the last half of the last century. Oh my gosh.

Well I was four years old and it was 1949.I read my mother's pre-primer from when she was in kindergarten. It was a seriously old book with three colors.

For Christmas in 1951 I received a series book, The Bobbsey Twins.I was so thrilled to read through it.It had a story and I was hooked.

What ages did I read through? Hmmm, books from the 1950s might now be called "historical" but we will ignore that. I love to read books that transport me to another place in time and often another place entirely. A different country or culture if it is of interest to me works also.

I seem to be pretty selective and grow ever more so. Right now I am fixated on the medieval period, even early medieval if accurate historically.My current group is on the time both just before and just after the Conquest in England.

My Irish Norman ancestors, known to us by name and occupation, came to the Limerick, and Tipperary borders from Wales in the entourage of the Norman ruling class.They are in Wales after 1166 and at some point before 1200 they are found in Ireland and Ponthieu France.

DNA has shown we are connected to all the Fant and Faunts in the UK and US but that "we" were not Scandinavian Normans. DNA points to the south of France and at some point after the last ice age were some of the first humans in Sardinia.

They  were Normans only politically on the male side but the female side would have ties to the rulers in Normandie. So I read about Emma of Normandy, the Godwines and others who came before them from Falaise and Fecamp.

It's a far cry from the Bobbsey Twins at Whitesail Harbor.