I have been a voracious reader most of my life. As a kid I won the book worm award in grade school. I remember it was a large cardstock worm with a book and glasses…
They called my name to go the front of the gym and accept my award in front of all the grade school classes. I was so proud.
I absolutely loved the school library and the day each week that we would single file go to return the previous weeks books and check out more. What an amazing system – books MORE than you could possibly ever read, waiting for you to select it for a moment in your life.
In my early days, books were a key to other worlds, other lives, other adventures. I lived many through the pages and pages. Books were also perfect for escape when my own world became too intense… the house fire, the moving to another state, the return, the horse accident, the car accidents, the losses.
I am not sure how my reading love began as I was a “lone reader” in my house growing up. My mom and dad were not readers. My sister was too young and never had the chance to become one. I wonder now if she would have been and if this is something we would have shared over conversations on the phone or local coffee shops… gushing in excitement or deeply talking about what we had read.
As full as my life is, I am still drawn to books and fit them into every nook and cranny my mind has room for. Often, these days it is audio so I can cook or clean, drive or paint or rake while listening. Yet when I do have some time, I love to open a book and READ.
I miss not doing that more.
Above are the books that reached me this past week. Second Tuesdays for 20 years now has been our Book Clubs day to meet. This month we read Woman 99 by Greer Macallister. A good Historical Fiction read about late 1800’s Women’s Asylum’s. What an interesting read and discussion! MY review will show up soon.
The Nickel Boys By Colson Whitehead was our Books Burgers and Brews read this month – another Historical Fiction read, horrifying on an even more-so level as this book is written about the actual Dozier School for Boys which has many unaccounted for boys and buried secrets.
Which leads me to Dean Koontz book, Innocence which I am hopeful to dive into this weekend. Dean used to be a go to author for me and looking at his list of books this morning I don’t’ believe I missed any of his earlier books:
77 Shadow Street, What The Night Knows, Breathless, Relentless, Your Heart Belongs To Me, The Darkest Evening Of The Year, The Good Guy, The Husband, Life Expectancy, The Funhouse (my first by him), Demon Seed, Tick Tock, Sole Survivor, Strange Highways, Winter Moon, Shadow Fires, Ice Bound, The Eyes Of Darkness, The Key to Midnight, The Voice Of The Night, Shattered, Mr. Murder, Midnight, Lightning, Watchers, Strangers, Hideaway, Fear Nothing, By The Light Of The Moon, The Face, Whispers.
Yup… I read all of them 😀
Now I am excited to read this book that I recently found at our used book sale, as well as excited to dig into his newest release, The Other Emily.
How did you become a reader? Were you always a reader or became one later in life? Did you have someone who inspired you to read?
Book Journey 
When I was young, I spent my days in the woods and fields and waterways around my house. I was not a voracious reader. I do remember reading several books, but they were mostly about wilderness, which has always interested me. I recall being mesmerized by The Raft, a true account of an airman getting shot down in WWII and surviving for weeks on a raft. The ocean is a kind of wilderness. Ditto, Night of the Grizzly, another true account of two separate grizzly bear attacks. But I was not completely hooked on reading until I turned 18 and read a short story by Ernest Hemingway, Big Two-Hearted River. I’m not a fan of Hemingway’s personal life – especially after watching Ken Burns’ recent documentary. But I have enjoyed his writing. That short story turned something in my head and heart, and I grew into a voracious reader – still am.
I love this Cary, thanks for sharing! It is so interesting to hear where people found their love of books and it is not always passed down trait.
Always a reader! From my mom. I had a grade school teacher conference where the teacher confessed she didnt know what to do with me. I was sneaking a book in my lap but my grades were ok! I had a teacher who loaned me books out of her own personal library. I recently located one of those on a used book website. Not as good as I remembered.
And the Scholastic book flyer. Back than it was BOOKS; not the erasers and crap. My mom always found the money to let me buy one or two
LOL I love that the teacher did not know what to do with you! LOVED the Scholastic flyer!!!! That was like a Holiday!
I started reading early, and loved to curl up in hidden spots, to avoid being disturbed by parents and others. Invisibility!
My mother read some, but not a lot until years later. She did take me to the library every week, though, for which I am grateful.
I have The Nickel Boys…and now I am eyeing Woman 99 with great interest.
Thanks for sharing!
When you say this Laurel you reminded me that there were 7 years between my sister and me… I didn’t have a sibling to really play with until I was like 11, and she was 4 so I had a lot of time to dive into books. She passed away at 5 years old – so again, the books became my safe(r) world.
They tell me I crawled over to the bookcase and dragged my father’s War and Peace off the bottom shelf. opened it and looked like I was reading it. However I could read words but didn’t “get” them because of dyslexia. One day I was over at the neighbors, and she said to me :”read this paragraph and tell me what it says to you”…it was a “Helen Keller moment”….and I’ve never stopped
Love this! What a great begining!
What a great topic. How did I become a reader? I am told that I was reading when I was only two, almost by osmosis. My mom read to me all the time, and one day I picked up a book and…started reading.
BTW, I am terribly envious of your Bookworm Award.
Love it! And lol about my award…. I can picture it so clearly… I wonder what I ever did with it? 😛
I was always a reader. Mostly because my living situation was not ideal and I needed that escape. It did not transfer to my kids and we did all the things. Read in utero, story times at the bookstore, library visits that went on for hours. Forced reading logs in school killed it for both of them. They HATE reading which of course makes me so sad.
On Koontz, I met him. He is the nicest guy. Waited all day to see each and every person who waited in a very long line to see him. Plus, I love that he rescues Goldens. I’ve read all his old stuff but then he got a little weird with the story telling and I lost interest. I am starting to be interested in his newer stuff though.
It’s funny you talk about the “weird period” – yes – I recall it and I quit reading him as well during that time… Velocity was one I think I could not get into and something about roads… then it seems like he came back to who he was…
As for my kids they both read when they were young. It stuck with Justin but not Brad. Justin and I would talk books all the time.
I was smiling when I was reading this and Jeff asked what I was reading and I read it out loud to him. He says “she’s describing your life!” Up until the losses you have had. So many.
My mother was a reader but my grade school librarian Mary was always pointing me in the direction of the best books to check out.
A book is my security blanket. I feel lost without one.
I smiled too Angie, at the thought that much of this applies to you as well. I find that when I am overloaded, can’t find my direction because (what a surprise) I have loaded up many – books can reset me. I find it interesting that at different times in my life I have not had a lot of times for books, yet I am ways come back to them – now that the kids are grown and its just AL and I – they are a constant in my weekly life.
What an interesting idea to explore how one became a reader. I remember being down on the floor, looking at the newspaper beneath me. My poor mother nearly fainted when I asked her, “Mama what does V-I-R-G-I-N…mean” until I finished the name of the flag of the paper,”VIRGINIAN PILOT.” That and the Bible were my first readers. When we got to school and learned the sight method and became friends with Dick, Jane, Baby Sally, Spot and Puff, reading was old hat!