Her Life Has Always Been An Open Book

Virginia Tinsley Johnson opens the book to the middle and gently presses the seam so as not to crack the spine.

“I need books,” she says, with the fervor of an absolute believer. “There’s something about the feel of paper, the type of print.”

Books clutter her home, her arms as she walks, her office at North Idaho College where she heads the English department. She scribbles the names of books she hears about from friends, students and radio reviews in a thin, black book she keeps in her purse.

Quotes from Emily Dickinson and Alexander Pope bolster her conversation like carved columns on a Greek temple. She becomes characters from literature, complete with their personality and clothes, to teach.

“Her love for reading is contagious,” says Liz DePasquale, a student/fan after one semester in Virginia’s English literature class.

Virginia’s passion began with the Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, the Oz series. An eighth-grade teacher stoked the fires when she told Virginia a biography on Madame Curie was too difficult for her.

“Those were fighting words to me,” Virginia says, the lenses of her glasses magnifying an intensity that hasn’t diminished over the years. “That book opened my eyes.”

It told Virginia, a teenager of the 1950s, that women could do anything. She went on to earn a doctor of arts degree in English.

She reads novels, magazines, travel books, scientific journals. She reads over breakfast, while she brushes her teeth. Each summer, she tries to absorb 50 books and rereads during the rest of the year all the books she assigns her classes.

The years have tired her eyes, which worries her, but haven’t dulled the thrill. Prose that flows still lights her face like a slot machine with a jackpot.

“Reading gives you so much wisdom, ways to cope with things,” she says. “There are so many ideas out there that make you think. I can’t imagine not reading.”

Meet Your Neighbors

In your effort to think about others on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, don’t overlook the people in your back yard.

Francis Culloyah, a religious leader and dancer with the Kalispel Tribe, will talk about racial stereotyping, discrimination, religious freedom, poverty and loss of culture at 3 p.m. Sunday in Sandpoint’s First Presbyterian Church, 417 N. Fourth Ave.

The once mighty Kalispel tribe now has only about 250 members. Francis’ story is as sad as it is eyeopening. His presentation is free, thanks to the Bonner County Human Rights Task Force.

Educated Mothers

North Idaho’s mothers are, for the most part, an educated bunch, according to the state’s Center for Vital Statistics. In 1993, 1,394 finished high school and 624 of those went on to college.

At the other end of the spectrum: 304 hadn’t finished high school and 32 of those hadn’t passed eighth grade. Boundary County had the most under-educated mothers: 13 who never passed eighth grade.

Latah was the only northern county with more college-educated mothers than those who stopped after high school. Big surprise, with the University of Idaho as the county’s centerpiece.

Book Fever

I typically read in the bathtub because I’m easily distracted. But when a book grabs me, I’ll read it while I cook dinner, wait for the carpool kids or ride the exercise bike.

Where’s the strangest place you’ve read a book too good to put down? Confess to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 608, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 83814; FAX to 765-7149; or call 765-7128.