Beautifully told. Your grandfather choosing the gift of books is a rare and dying trend. Instead of spending his time telling you what you should and shouldn’t do, he gifted you the opportunity to take from the books what you needed and saving the rest for later. Thanks for sharing, I’ve held on to a few books too; reading the inscriptions often.

This is worthy of ‘chicken soup for the soul’!

Bob, this is a very nice story. It did surprise me a bit though. I thought you would take Grampa’s Book to school with you the next day, and hit the bully up-side-the-head with it! Where was the slingshot when you needed it, right?

Your Grampa sounds like a great man, thanks for sharing a little of him with us.

I have been experimenting with “hook” openings lately, both here and in the flash fiction category (1000 words). Hence, the fight scene. In ficly, unlike flash, one must choose the story carefully so as to fit it all in the space provided.

The “flash” version of this story allows for much more elaboration due to the luxury of space.

I am grateful that you (all) are reading these. I very much look forward to these comments.

Lovely idea and nicely told. The last part got kind of exposition-y, but I’m not sure how you could overcome that in the character limits. It is a really neat idea, the mysterious character of the grandfather and his uncanny book selections.

I like this a lot. It made me sad at first, but I am glad there is a hero for everyone. This one named Grampa.

This is neat. I love receiving books as gifts even if it’s just a gift certificate so I can pick out what I really want! Oddly, my grandfather often buys me books as gifts too. Wonderful story!