To be a reader

I am reader.  I have always been a reader and I will always be a reader.  I will always have full bookshelves, a Kindle in my desk drawer and a wish list of books a mile long.  

I remember the summer it all began, I don't remember the year but I remember it was summer and my sister Cindy had a good friend of her family who was a teacher. Cindy took me to her house to borrow some books.  It was then I met Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods and I was a goner. I couldn't read that series enough. I read every book over and over and over again. I probably had them memorized. I went home the end of that summer to have my mom get me the whole set for my very own. I read them so many times I wore them out. The spines were cracked, pages were dog eared, and some even falling out.  I loved those books. 

Some Sunday mornings my mom and I would stop at the local bookstore and I'd be allowed to pick out 2 or 3 or 5 books for my very own. I read everything by Judy Blume and a few Beverley Cleary to V.C. Andrews and Danielle Steele and now Karen White, Patti Callahan Henry, Elin Hilderbrand, Robyn Carr, and so many more.  

We had a subscription to Reader's Digest once, I loved the day the new issue came in the mail. I'd read that little magazine from cover to cover, All in a Days Work, Humor In Uniform, the featured stories, every last bit.  My mom also subscribed to Guideposts which was another fave.  His Mysterious Ways was the best feature! Even a Parents magazine or Grandma Nollf's National Enquirer rag would do!  It seemed there were never enough words to be read. 

Somewhere around high school my appetite for books took a lull and I didn't read much until my early 20's.   Now I read about slavery, Civil Rights, the Holocaust, World War II, Vietnam, Ellis Island, Henry Ford, women's rights, The White House, John F. Kennedy and his assassination, things I never thought I'd have an interest in. But, I do.

I asked my husband once how he would describe me.  His answer was "well read".  I like being a reader.  I like knowing a little about a lot of topics.  I like getting lost in a book for an hour or 3.  Books kept me out of trouble, kept my mind sharp, kept some of the demons at bay.  I'm thankful I grew to be reader.  I hate to think what I would have been without. 

Thank you Betty James for introducing me to Laura Ingalls Wilder, encouraging me to read, read more and read often.  To you, I will always be grateful.