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My Birth!
I asked my mom when she started reading to me and she said, "Probaby two days after you were born." My dad responded with, "Yeah" right after she said that. -
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Storytime
I do not remember learning how to read but I know I have always loved books. I know both my parents read to me and my older brothers, however, I remember my mom the most since my dad worked long hours. My mom was and still is a huge believer in reading. She read us bedtime stories in my room with my older brothers when I was a baby but as I grew older we gathered in my oldest brother’s room. -
I Can Read!
My mother said that I was reading, on my own, by the time I wa three. Easy books for my level of course, but reading on my own. -
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I love to read!
I love to read and I read for pleasure every chance that I can get. I used to carry a book with me where ever I went (including family gatherings) but now I carry my Nook and if I forget my Nook I have my phone. I was recorded asking my older cousin why she was primping in the mirror to go out when they could do something better like read a book. I was 8 at the time and she was in her early 20s. My love has not changed, though now I understand what my cousin was doing. -
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Early Elementary Reading
Growing up there were all types of genres of books in my house. In my younger years, we had Bible stories, Little Golden Books, Sweet Pickles (loved these!), fairy tales and tall tales to read. I know there were more I just cannot remember them all. I know we had two bookcases filled with books that were in the hallway and once my brothers out grew them I asked for the bookcases to be moved into my room. -
The Monster at the End of the Book
One of my favorite memories is reading, The Monster at the End of This Book with my parents. I remember they pretended that the page with the brick wall was sooo heavy they couldn’t lift it. -
Sweet Pickles
One of my all time favorite children's book series. -
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Other reading material
We had all types of reading material in my house (aside from books): magazines, cookbooks, newspapers, letters, notes, flyers, pamphlets, comic books etc. The two magazines I remember the most were Highlights for Children and National Geographic. I remember being very put out when my mom canceled our subscription claiming we were too old (in retrospect, we were). I started reading comic books because my brothers read them and to my surprise I enjoyed them quite a bit. -
Highlights for Children
I loved Highlights and I remember being very disapointed when my parents stopped subscribing it. -
Library Books
I would bring home stacks of books from the library (once again my mom encourged reading). It continued this way thourghout elementary, junior high and high school....the number of books decreased as the books got thicker. -
My Composition Book
Throughout my third grade year my teacher gathered writing I did in each subject and had it bound (hardback). Everyone in third grade had this done. I remember being so proud and excited the day I recieved my book. I could not wait to show it off to my parents and my older brothers (who still had thier books). -
Comics
I started reading comic books becasue my brothers read them. -
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Writing
When I was younger I enjoyed writing (college sort of beat the enjoyment out). I had diaries/journals, wrote letters, and loved writing lists (still do). I am slowly regaining my joy of writing now that I have graduated and am free to write what I want to write. Writing was a form of release for me. In my journals I wrote in florescent colors that were hard to see that way if anyone read my journals they would have a difficult time of it. -
Beauty and the Beast
My favorite story of all time is Beauty and the Beast. I fell in love with the movie when it came out in 1991 and thus my obsession to read every version of the fairy tale known to man was born. My favorite children’s version is in a book that has several fairy tales. The illustrations are beautiful. -
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Time Limit
I cannot remember when, but sometime in late elementary school I made a little reading nook in my room, in front of my window, where I would lounge on the floor and read for hours. When I say hours it was hours…half the day or more if I was not in school. I finally made the hard decision to put a two hour cap on my reading time. 90% of the time I stuck with my time limit but it wasn’t easy. -
Book Series
For a few years I enjoyed reading books that were in a series. I enjoyed reading Nacy Drew, The Babysitters Club, The Boxcar Children, etc. -
Letter Writing
I enjoy writing letters. I used to write letters to our next door neighboors when they moved as well as my cousin in Mexico. I still enjoy writting letters and I am currently a pen pal to a few soldiers. -
Poetry
I have always enjoyed reading poetry but in seventh grade I fell in love with writing poetry because that is when I realized that it did not need to rhyme. I wrote it all the time, including in class when I should have been listening to the teacher! I, however, am the only person in my family that enjoys poetry beyond music lyrics. At the end of the poetry unit my teacher put together a compilation of her student’s poems (with their permission) in a book that we were able to take home. -
Classics
In eighth grade I decided to read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (because I saw the movie). Little did I know that this would spark an interest inreading all of Jane Austins books, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte etc. -
Beauty
Robin McKinley’s Beauty (aka Rose Daughter) is my favorite novel…it is magical. One of the best reports I had ever done was on this book. I loved this book so much that I put more effort into this report than I ever had before. -
Some books I read in high school
In high school I went through a period where I read a lot of books by Lurlene McDaniel. Most were depressing but I did enjoy reading them quite a bit because I learned about different diseases. During my senior year I discovered how much I enjoyed reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. -
The Fox and the Fawn by Daniel Derasaugh
My brothers and I are all huge readers, but my middle brother is the only one that combined his love of writing with his love of reading and wrote a book for children to enjoy and be taught a lesson about how dangerous strangers can be. -
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Current Times
Sometime in the last year I have started to read more children’s and young adult books. It grew in force when I completed my student teaching in 4th grade because my students were reading books that I had never heard of and darn if they did not sound good as well. My curiosity was awakened and I thought since I plan on teaching soon, perhaps I should get up to date on what is out there now. -
Graduation Cake
I love reading so much that my graduation cake was made to look like books!!!
