my love of books

my mother read to me all the time when i was a child, even before i can remember. some of my earliest memories were of mama and i curled up on the couch at our old house, she lying on her side with her knees crooked out toward the edge of the couch, and me lying behind her legs with my head propped on her hip. she would read from one of four large, hardback richard scarry books. for those of you who dont know, richard scarry books were compilations of childhood nursery rhymes, short stories, etc. sometimes she would read the stories to me or i would just look at the pictures. when i was old enough i would read the same books myself. that was my fun time. i even read when i was potty training! there i was, sitting on the white plastic potty, big-girl panties in a heap on the floor, reading from a book. good times, good times!

as i got older, i used reading as an escape of sorts. we lived in the country and all of my cousins who were anywhere close to my age lived in other towns. there were few children in the area, and the ones that were around didnt play with me, for whatever reason. (i think it was a social clash, their parents didnt want them playing with the poor white trash girl.) so books became my escape, their characters became my friends. i would pretend i was whatever heroine was at hand and i would live her story. 

i even read nonfiction works; the encyclopedia was a smorgasbord of information. i would read about the presidents and then write summaries of what i had read. i would make little booklets with all the presidents in them and later i would use them to "teach" my playschool classes!

as i got a little older, i would read magazines and magazine-type books; ellery queen, reader's digest, tv guide, the enquirer, MAD, anything i could get my hands on. my aunt betty was a fanatic for the romantic true story magazines, so i even read those, and she later introduced me to historical romance fiction and harlequin books. i loved those and simply couldn't get enough. 

during the summer and every other chance i got, i practically lived at the evans county library. i cherished walking up the sidewalk to the huge brick building with its smoky glass windows. entering the atrium brought such joy to my heart; the library had a smell all of its own: books, air freshener, a hint of cleaning supplies. the conditioned air from the book haven would hit me as i opened the second door that led from the atrium into the main lobby and i would always have a smile inside my heart. occasionally that smile would make it to my face.

i would scour the shelves of the library; there were no computers back then in our small, rural library. soon the junior section of the library became boring, and i graduated to the adult book section when i was about 11 or 12. i read every book i could get my hands on, from anatomy & physiology to do-it-yourself to non-fiction. i was a sponge. then, i found stephen king. 

the first book i read by king was christine, and i was hooked. i read and re-read nearly every king book i could get my hands on, and my love for reading horror was born. i already had a love for watching horror movies since i was a small child, and this just perpetuated the cycle! while i love almost all aspects of horror, my heart lies in the paranormal. ghost, goblins, vampires, werewolves, monsters, they hold my interest more than anything, in both books and movies. 

all this leads up to one thing: the stand, an epic apocalyptic novel by stephen king. jackie and i are going to read the book together according to a set reading pattern and blog on it daily. by our calculations, it should take approximately 39 days to finish. i read my allotted two chapters and it was very hard to put down! i've read the story three or four times already and it just keeps getting better. 

i <3 stephen king!!