SNOHOMISH — Doris Wendtworth is the type who greets visitors at the door before they even ring the bell.
She lives in a pinkish house on Riverview Road and has the kind of broad, enthusiastic smile that usually precedes a hug.
Maybe it’s her black socks dancing with little Santa Clauses, or her wooly blue zip-up sweater covered in white, beaded snowflakes. Whatever it is about her, immediately it seems OK to call her Doris instead of Ms. Wendtworth or ma’am, even though she was a schoolteacher for "something like 24 years."
"Can I take your coat?" she says. "Would you like some coffee? I just made a fresh pot."
At Wendtworth’s house of 27 years, there’s more than likely a glowing fire in her brick fireplace. She might apologize for not yet having laid down her red-and-green holiday rug in the entryway.
Saturday, her dining room was full of books on tables and in crates. The stacks of hardcovers were topped with neat, hand-lettered signs: "Children’s," "Novels," "Mental," "Mysteries," "Biography Heavy Duty."
One of the most impressive things about 77-year-old Wendtworth is that she sits in her favorite mauve chair by the fireplace and consumes three to five books a week. She started spending much of her time reading 12 years ago when she retired from Snohomish High School.
"Three to five books a week is nothing," she says.
Each time she finishes a book, she pulls another from one of the many shelves in her house.
She may read a Kurt Vonnegut novel, then switch tothen move on to "Charlotte Gray," a novel set in World War I England.
There is at least one bookshelf, small or mammoth, in every room of her house. Her walls are lined with hundreds of shiny new books, most of them hardcover editions.
The closed door to her bathroomis adorned with a wooden sheep that says "Baath." Wendtworth said there is a basket of books in there, too.
Reading so many books creates quite a pile after a while, so last year she decided to have a "Once-Read Book Sale" in her living room. She arranged the books — in all sizes, shapes and subjects — on tables, invited friends and served beverages.
More than 100 people came to her Sunday afternoon living room sale. They bought one book for $5, six books for $25 or 10 books for $40.
Wendtworth made about $1,000, all of which went to buying coats for area children.
"If you give people an opportunity, they will give and give and give," she said.
Today, she is having her second living room book sale. But this year she will serve fancy desserts such as apple cake and raspberry bars with cocoa and coffee.
Along with kids’ coats, she will use the proceeds to buy children’s school supplies, and then maybe some warm sweat shirts for an area men’s shelter.
She glanced at one table of books that on Saturday was all ready for today’s bibliophiles.
From that table she pulled some of her most recent reads: "American Historic Neighborhoods and Museum Houses," which she called "really fascinating," and "Hitler’s Pope," which was "a total education." "Lost in Translation," she said, was "very, very interesting."
Wendtworth buys all types of books — sometimes $100 worth at a time — from a catalog with blurbs about each one.
To her, the public library is overwhelming.
"People think I’m crazy to not use the library, but if you have a catalog, you can read what each one is about," she said.
It got so Wendtworth was receiving so many books in the mail that she bought her "darling mail lady a dolly so she doesn’t have to break her back."
Wendtworth thinks it’s selfish to keep good books around.
"If it’s something that I’ve really enjoyed, I give it to somebody," she said.
She gives them to friends and to her children and grandchildren for their birthdays.
"All they get is a book and a check," she said. "I don’t even go near a store. And that suits me just fine."
Books aren’t all she gives.
Wendtworth is a regular do-gooder, tutoring children and serving meals twice a week at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Second Street
She also buys books for children of low-income families with funds from the Snohomish and Tillicum Kiwanis, and makes regular deliveries to shelters and schools.
She takes donated coats, clothing, bicycles, makeup and toys to people who are thrilled to receive something as small as a new toothbrush.
"Once you get the reputation that you can find a home for anything, people give you everything," she said.
Once, when she was unloading some donations at a shelter in Everett, a little girl came out and said, "I don’t have much, but I want to give you this for Christmas."
She dropped a penny in Wendtworth’s hand. She keeps that penny in a container in her purse.
"Everybody helps," she said. "I’m just the deliverer."
People know Wendtworth.
Along with being a former high school special education teacher, she ran Saturday detentions and the re-entry program for students who had been kicked out of school.
"People ask me if I knew their children, but if I didn’t know your child, that was good," she said.
Before she lived in Snohomish, she grew up in a predominantly Swedish part of Chicago, where in the winter firefighters would flood vacant lots for ice-skating.
She loved Chicago for little things like that.
And she loves Snohomish — the place where she feeds hungry neighbors, buys coats for kids, and where people buy once-read books rom the tables in her living room.
"Snohomish, to me, is heaven itself," Wendtworth said. "As you can see, I get pretty excited about the good things in life."
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
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