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!
The more I write the more I read. Jodi Picoult has my attention currently. Although I may read everything an author has written, I don't read one book after the other. That's not fair to the author. But gradually I will have read all her books.
ReplyDeleteShe's a genius. If you like inventive, real-to-life-possible stories, she's your author. So far I've read Mercy, with a Scottish background and a current issue, mercy killing; The Storyteller, a WW II Nazi issue with justice and compassion issues, and My Sister's Keeper, about a family working together to keep a child alive. We have friends dealing with this issue and found it right on the money.
Oh Robin, Edgar Allen Poe, my youngest daughter has memorized his works and can recite them at the drop of a hat.
ReplyDeleteMe I prefer something a bit less, um, goth I guess, but I must admit I like Poe's style - and I even enjoy some of Stephen Kings' work, and some romance - fantasy and Sci Fi I love the artwork that accompanies them and the covers of the books, but I could never write them. I can't build those extensive worlds. You do it so well.
Thanks for the tour.
Billie
I got stuck on Edgar Rice Burroughs and spent lotsa time on Mars! I find that I read cyclic, my latest kick is paranormal romance.
ReplyDeleteBillie: I can't write mystery. That's why it is a good thing to have so many different authors.
ReplyDeleteMary -- I think I spent some time on Mars, too.