I clearly recall reading my first book by myself in my second grade, but can’t remember anyone but teachers ever reading to me. I stuck to picture books for a long time until I read Boxcar Children. Shortly afterward I discovered horse books. I loved horses! Wow! I think I read Black Beauty first, followed by novels by Marguerite Henry, Walter Farley, and Will James. Smokey with horse breaking cowboy looking for his stolen mouse gray horse continues to be one of my favorite books. The public library was a mile or so away and I walked there at least once a week to get two or three books. My family complained I always had my nose in a book, and it was true I could get lost in a story.
Once my Mom called and told me to take the roast out of the oven at a certain time. I said sure and went back to reading. Yep, you guessed it, the time clicked by, and Mom came home to an overdone roast.
I went through a period where I read all the Edger Allen Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and moved on to those of Ellery Queen. I loved getting lost in those worlds.
In my sophomore English, we were required to read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. This was when I also started working in a drug store and discovered the paperback racks. Suddenly I was reading historical romances by Emily Loring, Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart (loved the romance-mystery crossover); Victoria Holt, Jean Plaidy, and Phillippa Carr – who the last three I discovered later were all pseudonyms for author Eleanor Hibbert.
Once I picked up a novel by Andre Norton, and I was off and running on fantasy. Which seems a strange genre because all fiction is fantasy. Norton wrote so many books! Fantasy led to science fiction.
My reading preferences are still all over the place. I still love historical and historical romance novels, mysteries, and I still adore good science fiction and fantasy. The newer urban fantasies also interest me. I still read printed books, but I must admit I love my Kindle and all the books available.
Take a short tour and a look at other takes on why I love to read:
Billie A. Williams
Ginger Simpson
Beverly Bateman
Joel Jurrens
Kay Sisk
Is the round robin only for authors? No, if you have a blog and want to participate, let me know!
