Yes Yogurt Moon, I do need to update. Sigh. I liked the "15 things about you and reading," so I am going to do it. Without further ado, here are:
15 Things About Me and Reading
1. Apparently I was one of those kids who came home from school on the first day of first grade angry that they didn't teach me how to read. I don't remember this, but I remember people telling me about it. Now that I read other people's 15 things, I realize I was apparently a slacker for not ALREADY knowing how to read by first grade.
2. I wanted to learn how to read so badly that I actually memorized at least one of my children's books before someone finally taught me. It was some little red book about a bright green worm that I remember best. Also, this makes me wonder why the heck my parents didn't just teach me to read.
3. I used to spend a lot of time in the local public library before I was even able to read. At that point, my family lived within walking distance of the library and we would often walk or ride our bikes there, me on my little pink and white bike with training wheels. One day, I couldn't find my parents after I was done looking for kid's books, so I assumed they had gone home without me. Naturally, I hopped on my bike and scooted off home, prompting some serious parent and librarian panic (and a lot of trouble for me once they found me). This isn't entirely about reading, but the librarians there still remember it and tease me for it.
4. A lot of these stories are actually pre-real-reading: My kindergarten classroom had two huge claw-foot bathtubs, painted in bright red and yellow, with beanbag chairs in the bottom. The reward for finishing your independent tasks was to sit inside a bathtub with a book for the rest of work time. Of course, that was pretty much my life goal that year, and I still remember the sweet success of the few times I managed to sit in the tub.
5. The Boxcar Children was my first love as far as series go, but I eventually got annoyed by their chirpy attitudes. I devoured series when I first started reading, and went through Nancy Drew even though it was a little before my time, and the Baby Sitters' Club even though I didn't like kids even as a kid. I also read a terrible historical Christian detective series about a girl named Mandy who had a fluffy white cat. Good grief. I was desperate.
6. My dad introduced me to The Hobbit in third grade, and it changed my life. I was obsessed with that book, and even made up little tunes to go with the poems in the book. We had a silent reading day in school for a special reading week, and I forgot the book. I was pretty much in tears until the teacher sent me down to the library to look for it, where lo-and-behold, it was.
7. I had a serious reputation as "that girl with the book" through pretty much all of middle school and some of high school. I once was so enthralled by The Hero and the Crown that I read it during the rests in my piece of music in band class. I once caught my science teacher timing me as I read Harry Potter to see how fast I read a page. I also made my sophomore year English teacher flip out because I was reading The Tempest on the first day of school (I was bored; she was thrilled). Those are several stories in one.
8. Another middle school story: in sixth grade we did Accelerated Reader, which I took as a personal challenge. For the first time ever I started reading the classics and dramatically expanded the range of things I would read. I also was the first person ever in the school to get 1,000 points, and the teacher gave me an award at "graduation" which also involved hauling all those books I had read up on stage.
9. I love the size and shape of books, and I always struggle between the price of aesthetically pleasing books and having more money to buy more, cheaper books. This was always a problem at those Scholastic Book fairs, where I wanted everything, plus a bookmark. One year I bought a cute little paperback copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I then carried in my coat pocket all over the place for a long time.
10. I have always had a good example of parents reading, especially my father, who will pick up any book in any genre that looks interesting and slog through it till the end. But, my worst two reading experiences ever were reading The Handmaid's Tail at the same time as my mom, when I was way too young, and reading something by Hemingway at the same time as my dad - we both hated it.
11. The last story made me think of another reading negative - since I get so drawn into books, I often feel the plots and emotions incredibly strongly. I also read so much as a kid that I was always reading beyond my age level. I once got halfway through a YA book when I came across a horribly disturbing description of a rape which left me literally sick, nauseated and trembling, and unable to forget the passage for days. I never finished the book, and even now I struggle to think about it without feeling uncomfortable.
12. I have considered Jane Eyre to be my favorite book from the time that I first read it, but going back to it now makes me realize how amazingly Gothic, in the literary sense, it is. And it also has ridiculous dialog. I still love it though, and should eventually get a copy that is in better shape than my 25 cent used-book store paperback.
13. In college I worked in the special collections of the university library, doing copy-cataloging of the Methodist materials. It was the first time I had gotten to handle any old books, and I really enjoyed the feel and smell of books bound in leather. Unfortunately, they were usually incredibly boring books, and I was always covered in crumbled bits of books.
14. The first time I ever really had a conversation with my boyfriend was at a book party at a friend's apartment. We were to bring and share our favorite books, and he left with my copy of Fahrenheit 451, which I had more or less forced on him in my enthusiasm for both book and boy. I later retrieved it, unread, from his house.
15. I am just now getting seriously back into reading after college, when I read so much for school I didn't have the time or energy to read for fun (liberal arts majors, three of them!). I consider it a little bit of a professional obligation, and I have seriously been enjoying reading frequently. I depend upon my librarian friends for reader's advisory!
8. Another middle school story: in sixth grade we did Accelerated Reader, which I took as a personal challenge. For the first time ever I started reading the classics and dramatically expanded the range of things I would read. I also was the first person ever in the school to get 1,000 points, and the teacher gave me an award at "graduation" which also involved hauling all those books I had read up on stage.
9. I love the size and shape of books, and I always struggle between the price of aesthetically pleasing books and having more money to buy more, cheaper books. This was always a problem at those Scholastic Book fairs, where I wanted everything, plus a bookmark. One year I bought a cute little paperback copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I then carried in my coat pocket all over the place for a long time.
10. I have always had a good example of parents reading, especially my father, who will pick up any book in any genre that looks interesting and slog through it till the end. But, my worst two reading experiences ever were reading The Handmaid's Tail at the same time as my mom, when I was way too young, and reading something by Hemingway at the same time as my dad - we both hated it.
11. The last story made me think of another reading negative - since I get so drawn into books, I often feel the plots and emotions incredibly strongly. I also read so much as a kid that I was always reading beyond my age level. I once got halfway through a YA book when I came across a horribly disturbing description of a rape which left me literally sick, nauseated and trembling, and unable to forget the passage for days. I never finished the book, and even now I struggle to think about it without feeling uncomfortable.
12. I have considered Jane Eyre to be my favorite book from the time that I first read it, but going back to it now makes me realize how amazingly Gothic, in the literary sense, it is. And it also has ridiculous dialog. I still love it though, and should eventually get a copy that is in better shape than my 25 cent used-book store paperback.
13. In college I worked in the special collections of the university library, doing copy-cataloging of the Methodist materials. It was the first time I had gotten to handle any old books, and I really enjoyed the feel and smell of books bound in leather. Unfortunately, they were usually incredibly boring books, and I was always covered in crumbled bits of books.
14. The first time I ever really had a conversation with my boyfriend was at a book party at a friend's apartment. We were to bring and share our favorite books, and he left with my copy of Fahrenheit 451, which I had more or less forced on him in my enthusiasm for both book and boy. I later retrieved it, unread, from his house.
15. I am just now getting seriously back into reading after college, when I read so much for school I didn't have the time or energy to read for fun (liberal arts majors, three of them!). I consider it a little bit of a professional obligation, and I have seriously been enjoying reading frequently. I depend upon my librarian friends for reader's advisory!
