The Steemit Christmas Book Challenge - Recommend a Favorite to the community

Image credit amazon.com

Christmas may be over but it's not forgotten and the madness continues with New Year's eve preparations all around the globe.
Those of us who are known as bookworms, become totally oblivious to the hustle and bustle when we find that special book that grips us from the first page!

The super talented author @honeydue initiated The Steemit Book Challenge - Recommend a Favorite to the community, and I in turn was challenged by another amazing author & great Steemian, @ericvancewalton.

My house is filled with books and magazines, from fiction to non-fiction, thrillers, biographies, conspiracy theories, self-help, recipe books and occasionally even the gossip magazines! However, I hate newspapers as they never feature any good news; only bad news sells newspapers not so!

My bedside pedestal always has a pile of books and magazines as I find more and more stuff to read - I cleared up recently so mostly magazines are left and the pile is smaller than normal!

Books takes us to places beyond our imagination, opens our mind up to stuff we've never heard of and gives us knowledge on any subject under the sun.
I used to live in the local library as a young schoolgirl, could not get enough of reading, would read well into the early hours of the morning when the whole house was asleep.

Before I recommend a very special book to the community, I will tell you the story behind my very first cookery book - Flop Proof Baking.

I was working as a learner draughtswoman for a firm of land surveyors and wanted to impress my work colleagues with a home-baked cake, but I was also learning that trade and not afraid to experiment. So I made a Coconut Cake, but being nutty about Coconut, I doubled up on that one ingredient. Of course the cake was as hard as a rock and my boss who had a wicked sense of humour came to stand in front of me, bit into his saucer and said he was not sure if he was taking a bite of the saucer or the cake! We had such a good laugh when his wife gave me the Flop-proof Baking recipe book for my kitchen tea, as it was known back then - bridal shower today or is that outdated too?

So Christmas has passed and I do not believe my recommendation is too late, as many of us received gift vouchers. All the book worms will be browsing the book stores for that special book.
We all know it's much easier shopping online and great when books that are unobtainable in the book stores are found online, but which book lover can resist walking into a book store and seeing as well as smelling brand new books?
I certainly cannot resist that!
Oh I love my Kindle as it's great for travelling, but nothing beats the feel of that book in my hand and having to resist the temptation of peeking what's on the next page!
We all have our favorite bookmarks, and this is one given by a special friend.

But I've really digressed here, so will get back to the book that had a huge impact on my early life and that is a book of poetry prose on Life called The Prophet by the Lebanese-American author Kahlil Gibran.
I lent this book to a friend years ago and it never returned, but I bought a copy translated into Afrikaans, which is my mother tongue, many many moons ago.

I will share just a couple of lessons I learnt in this beautifully written book where the wise author writes on many aspects of life.

When you meet the love of your life, grab that love with both arms but allow each other to grow as individuals.
Kahlil Gibran on Love

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep...

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love...

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

Lessons on marriage - that it's important that husbands and wives respect each other's space as that is what will ultimately bring you closer.
Kahlil Gibran on Marriage

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

To know that although I carried my children for nine months, they do not belong to me and that I must allow them to become their own persons.

Image credit KatSandogs.com
Kahlil Gibran On Children

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran writes on many other aspects of life and I'm sure this has helped many a person over the years.

Words can weave magic in one's heart, and this is what @honeydue said in her post......

Now, let's keep this going.

Tell us why you love your favorite book.

Let that be your gift to the Steemit community this Christmas.

A book can change lives. A book can save lives.

Words are immensely powerful, so who knows what may happen? Someone might be so touched by your recommendation that they quit their jobs and move away, start a new life altogether. It could be an eye-opener. It could make them fall in love with life all over again. It could change everything.

I'm sure you know such a book, that you have one book that completely changed the way you view things. Or maybe just a book you really really like.

Write about it.

So even though Christmas is over, I believe we can continue this challenge and tell the community about that one special book that had an impact on our lives.

I nominate the following people, but please feel free to join even if your name is not here: @birdsinparadise, @jusipassetti, @enchantedspirit, @goldendawne, @bigtom13, @princessmewmew, @joanstewart, @zen-art

Original Content by @lizelle
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