I love books. I love the look of them, the feel of them, I love their smell. I love the excitement I feel when I crack open the first page and the adventures that await me within those pages. I love the shiny, glossy book jacket and reading those tantalizing, teasing words on the jacket.
I learned to read and developed a love of reading at a Very young age. I could read long before I started school Whenever the family would take a trip I was always reading the billboards or other signs aloud to everyone on the car. Loudly of course! 🙂
The first time I met my grandparents, on my mother’s side, I drug my Grandpa over to the couch and sat him down and read to him. I was very proud of the fact that I could read. I think I was about 3 years old.
My mother raised 4 of us kids mostly by herself. She didn’t have an education to speak of, so money was tight, always. But when I opened a book, I was transported to another place and time. It was a fantastic way for me to entertain myself.
I would walk to the library in the summertime and bring back an armload of books every few days. During the summer, I averaged reading about a book a day.
No matter what you read, you learn something. I kept a dictionary handy when I was reading. If I came across a word that I could not figure out the meaning by the context of the sentence or paragraph, I would look it up.
I still love to read, but don’t take the time to do it as much anymore.
I think my life has been much more fruitful and accomplished because of my love of reading and my learning along the way.
As a kid, I used to read everything from Shakespeare to Poe to Sci-Fi to love stories. I love biographies. I love learning about people like Abe Lincoln, or my favorite artists.
My 2 older brothers always had comic books in the house, which I read. But those comics would spark my interest in people like Sherlock Holmes or Isaac Asimov. So my taste in books has varied widely.
I have some old books that I have packed around with me for years that I just cannot part with. One is a favorite from the 1970’s, which is beautifully illustrated about the life of Gnomes. Another is a book, also from the 70’s called “Shut Up and Eat Your Shoe Shoes!” It’s a hilarious true story about a couple that homesteads in Alaska. I also have some rare, old Tarzan books that I may pass down to my eldest grandson some day.
These books evoke wonderful memories of a simpler time for me.
I still have a stack of books on my night stand that are gathering dust. Maybe it’s time to crack open one of them and make a new friend….
Copyright (C) Penny Wilson
Penny Wilson Writes 