Monday, April 4, 2011

Day 3-Your first love (late)

Day 3-Your first love (late)

My first love, any kind of love, was for books.  I struggled with reading in Kindergarten and half of first grade. Then, a new boy came to school- Joey- who was so advanced in reading he received his own special reading group.  I burned to my innermost core with jealousy and competition.  From that moment on, I picked up every book in my mother's library, the local library, etc.  As home life became rocky, they became my escape.  Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, the Boxcar Children and Louisa May Alcott were the first to empowered me.  Beezus and Romona gave me a picture into average family life.  The Master Puppeteer transported me to a distant land and time while Harriet the Spy and From  the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler sparked a need for adventure. 

In 6th grade I went to an overly strict, evangelistic Christian school with a banned books list.  Guess who made it her mission to read every one of them!

Later in middle school, I discovered Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, and J.D. Salinger.  On the less cerebral front, I got caught up in John Grishim and Michael Crighton novels.  In high school I found Sylvia Path, Kate Chopin, and Virginia Woolf.  I would spend hours on a midnineties gurl site discussing feminist books and trying to discover what else I was missing.

From college until now, my love of books has not waned, but my time to lose myself in them has.  Instead, I'm trying to cause my son to fall in love with books.

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