Ah, Books, Sweet Books!

Books. They have always been a refuge for me at so many stages of my life. One of my earliest memories is of learning to read. No, correction, one of my earliest memories is being fascinated by the printed word and then such joy at being able to make out what the words said!

I learned to read in first grade and I believe it was by the whole language method; or at least that is the information that family members have given me and that is judging by the Dick and Jane books of the time. No matter though, I grasped it very quickly and from an early age my nose could be found in a book.

Truth be told, books got me through many traumatic times in my life. I grew up with no support system, emotional or otherwise, as well as had the instability of a home abandoned by an alcoholic father. The only emotion exhibited in my home was anger and if we children exhibited it, well, that was just not allowed. SInce I was the only girl with three brothers, I had my own room and spent many an hour hiding out there from the instability of my home life, often with a book in my hand. It was a blessing that I was able to get my hands on books as I did, living within walking distance of libraries in just about every place we lived (and we lived in many different places) and the times that we did not, having a decent in school library to borrow books from.

My favorite books were books about families, but mostly before I hit pre-adolescence. Once I hit adolescence I gravitated to books with single females; strong-willed females who didn't need a guy to define them, even though they many times had a father present who was totally unlike my own.

Pretty much I taught myself to speed read, by going to the library and looking up a book on speed reading and reading it. Then, because I wanted to retain much of what I read, I found a book on comprehension and read that too. It is unfortunate that I didn't recognize that behavior like that is what self-starters are all about, instead of by mid adolescence finding drugs and alcohol instead which really does rob you of motivation and energy.

But reading continues to be one of my favorite things to do and something that the novelty of hasn't worn off yet. I figure since I am middle aged at this point the habit and love of reading is here to stay. I read books about just about anything, having read the 9/11 Commission Report and currently working my way through The Gulag Archipelago, The Fire of Delayed Answers and The Missionary Travels in South Africa of David Livingstone; all excellent books in their own right, and all books about as different from one another as a book can be.

My all time favorite book is and probably always will be Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Another all time favorite will always be Mere Christianity. I add favorites every time that I read a book and the list cna encompass a notebook by itself.

Maybe one day I will make such a notebook as I reread all the books, one at a time. 8-)