“Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul.”
— Joanne Harris
The first book I ever remember reading where a set of Sesame Street hardcover picture books. I had to have only been around 4-ish and I think I only looked at the pictures and made up my own stories. My next reader memory is reading Dr. Seuss books a lot to my mom in the morning on our car-ride to drop me off at school. And my first favorite book? The Little House on the Prairie series, which I first read in 2nd grade. Second grade is also around the time my teacher decided I needed to be checking out and reading books on a fifth grade level. Fifth grade is when my teacher let me use her school library card on Fridays to check out a whole pile of books to get me through the weekend.
And speaking of libraries: that was my magic place. We went to a story-time group once a week, every week, in the summer. After the reading was over I would get to roam the shelves to pick out my next pile to read over the next week. So many Nancy Drews and Sweet Valley Highs.
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Then high school came and books took a serious backseat to boys and friends. I remember reading Twilight and Harry Potter but that's about it. Then about a year into college I was in the library waiting on my boyfriend to finish up on the computers. To pass the time I began to search through the shelves and decided that maybe I should pick up a book to read. That book was The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. That was the catalyst to rekindling my love affair with reading. Five years later and I read about two books per book.
I currently have:
228 unread books on my bookshelves
30 unread books on my kindle
44 unread books on my nook
I have virtually no one in real life who loves to read. Not my friends, fiance, or family. This is why I love book blogs and sites such as Goodreads so much. I also have a hard-time finding people in real life who even understand my love for reading. They usually just look at me funny when I say I love books. Oh, and don't even get me started on how they look at me when they find out how many books I own...
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My Favorite Books of All-Time:
- The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
- Tatiana and Alexander by Paullina Simons
- Gone With the Wind by Margerat Mitchell
Other Favorites (in no particular order):
- The Harry Potter series
- The Hunger Games series
- On Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
- Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
-Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
The only negative thing I can see about being a reader is that there is too many books I want to read and now enough time!
So that's it. That's a little bit more about me and why I do this.
xoxo
A huuuuuuuge problem with being a blogger is the constant inundation of awesome fiction. My TBR is in a constant state of growth. I try to control it, but really, it's out of control. Le sigh. WHY SO MANY GOOD BOOKS, WHY?!
ReplyDeleteThat's really cool, though, that The Glass Castle was able to get you back into reading like that. I feel like most readers have a similar story, you know, "This is the book that changed my life!" kind of thing, and it's always super personal and special. For me, that was probably Gone with the Wind back when I was about 12. Oh man. That book. I was OBSESSED.
I definitely understand where you're coming from concerning nobody understanding how you like to read. Just recently, I was sitting on the couch reading for maybe an hour (so not that long by bookworm standards), when one of my roommates was like "Jeez, Renae, what are you reading?! You've been there forever!". And I just couldn't explain that I was just reading a book, no big deal, haha. I'm lucky, though, because at home my entire family is a reader, and I grew up in a very literate home culture where reading was encouraged and valued.
Anyhoo. Thanks for sharing your reading journey (or what have you)! :)