Reading Me

"The Whole Internet" has been tagged by several people to do this reading meme. And I? Am the Internet! I've loved reading other people's literary memories, and it's reminded me of all sorts of childhood things I might never have thought of again. So, here's me, via my history with books and reading:

1. The first book I remember reading was "Raggedy Ann and the Cookie Snatcher." I could recite it, actually, at age 3 or 4. (Only now do I fully understand JUST how many times my parents must have read it to me!) My parents tape-recorded me doing it and I am SO thankful they did. It's fun to listen to.

2. My parents read to us a lot. Not only at bedtime. Some evenings we had a family book-reading time, where Mom or Dad would read aloud from James & the Giant Peach, or similar chapter-books. That's the only specific one I remember (help, Sis) -- but I do know it made a huge impression on me and I plan to do the same with my kids.

3. In First Grade, our reading groups were classified by birds and by colors. The best readers were Red Cardinals (my group), and the other kids were Bluebirds.

4. I do NOT dog-ear the pages of books (only magazines), nor can I abide writing with any sort of INK in a book. Pencil only, if required!! (This also applies to music -- even music I own.) My friend Melissa used to torture me by telling me she'd been in the bathtub with her paperback and showing me all the pages she'd folded over. *shudder*

5. My teacher in 5th grade made us do book reports, but she let us choose the books from her reading shelf, which I thought was so cool. (Just like with a toddler, you give them Choices and they respect you!) "Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret" was in high demand, and I got it at one point -- I just loved the huge selection this teacher kept on-hand.

6. Growing up I never could read or study with any background noise. By necessity, I have learned. I can now read to the tune of Monday Night Football, (or baseball or hockey), or to the sounds of Xbox or PlayStation2.

7. The first (and practically only) romance novel I ever read was called "Night Jasmine" and I ADORED it. However, I've never read it a 2nd time, nor have I ever been much interested in romance novels.

8. Or mysteries. Although, another young adult author I read and loved was John Bellairs and his mysteries. They were pretty dark, for kids' books, but I felt like they were more grown up than most of the mysteries I'd tried. They're now being compared to Harry Potter.

9. Moving on, to high school and grown-up reading: Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. I chose it for a project in freshman English, and was LOVING IT, when my friend, Kate, decided to ruin it for me by saying, "You know how it ends, right?" And SPOILING it before I even could say "No" or cover my ears!!

10. Huckleberry Finn: I laughed out loud during a reading period in junior English class, which somehow impressed my teacher. She said that when literature moves someone to outward expression, that is a good thing. (And I agree!) I often still laugh out loud while reading. My husband gives me quizzical looks.

11. I have tons of books on my shelves that I've "been meaning to read" for years. Atlas Shrugged, Corelli's Mandolin, A Man in Full, Skinny Legs and All, several Jane Austens, and Jane Smiley's "Moo," are just a few.

12. I've read, or started to read, 6 of John Irving's books. I liked him at one time, but I think I've outgrown him. My favorite was "Owen Meany," but the 2nd time I read it (after several of his others), I couldn't even finish.

13. I admit it: I liked Jan Karon's Mitford series. I want to live in Mitford, really. I'd have to convert, though, and go to Father Tim's Episcopal church.

14. I didn't read Walden until just after college. At the time I was walking in the mornings along a beautiful nature trail, so it doesn't strike me at all strange that I totally cried when I got to the famous parts. I could anticipate them coming up as I read it the first time, since I'd heard them before. They still touch me every time:
--"Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did…. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour."
--"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
--"Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.... Simplify, simplify."


...most people have done 15 things or more, but I'm worn out! Thanks for reading.