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Once upon a time
My mother read to me from a young age. We mainly read original style fairy tales from an old book she had. -
The Peanut Prince
My Dad was military and we moved a lot. We didn't always get to live with him, but when we did he would always tell me stories of his made up narrative 'The Peanut Prince'. -
Italy
We moved around a lot, but when we went to italy, I didn't speak the language or know any kids my age. Books started to feel like friends to me. -
Mrs. Hines
Most teachers thought it was strange that I wouldn't make friends with many peers. But my 2nd and 3rd grade teacher didn't seem to mind that i preferred books. She gave me a book called The Hobbit and I fell in love with stories all over again. -
After Mr Tolkein
After reading the hobbit, I became obsessed as a reader with fantasy worlds. It wasn't long before I was reading other authors that told fantastic adventure tales such as Tamora Peirce, Anthony Peirce, and JK Rowling. -
Middle School - The Library Years
While I would eventually learn to make friends and get along with my peers, It took a while. I spent most of my free time through middle school held up in the library and perusing through comics and history texts. I would read about the ancient greeks and egyptians for fun where my peers had to be coaxed to learn about such things. And I always seemed to run into interesting things. I just never understood why other people didn't seem to enjoy books. -
Grandma's House
I spent a lot of summers at my grandparents farm. While there wasn't a lot to do there was never a lack of entertainment. My grandmother would share her book collection with me- our favorite to share being all things written by Nora Roberts- and sometimes we would go into the closest town and search through the used books store together.
I would later learn that most all of the romance writers in the world set a very high bar if one intends to learn about loving interactions from books. -
Freshmen Year
The first real friend I ever made took me until i was 14. Until then I had never really done well holding onto friends with the assumption that I would eventually move away and never see them again anyway. But then a girl named Catherine pushed her way into my life in a joyfully forceful way for which i later became grateful. I made a lifelong friend over a chance encounter because of Good Omens by Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett -
Dr Seuss in my High School Library
At one point in Highschool, I had reverted to spending lunch time in the library. I would wander book shelves with no real goal in mind and it was here I found a most peculiar volume of Dr. Seuss's wartime propaganda artwork. Until then, I had only known him for the childish and whimsical books that my mother would read to me growing up.
This new perspective opened my eyes to just how versatile and detailed the lives of other people can be without us noticing. -
Graduation
Good bye high school and hello plan for the rest of your life. The day I graduates, my aunt gave me a copy of Dr Seuss' 'Oh the places you'll go!' And I still have it. I plan to read it to my boys when the sit still long enough. Haha I never stopped reading. Most of my favorites are getting made into movies and TV shows these days. Many of the stories I was read, I now read to my two one year old sons and they seem to love nothing better than flipping the pages and looking at the pictures.
