Reading Addiction

I have a major reading addiction which started when I was about 11 years old. I’ve never been able to shake it. In 5th grade we were given reading time during class and told to choose any book from the Great Books list in the classroom. I had a fascination with scifi and fantasy, so I chose a book called The Mysterious Island by Jules Vern. Unlike other books that were 200-300 pages each, I seem to recall this book was almost 400 pages. When I was several chapters in, I learned this book was the sequel to the famous book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (which I had seen the movie). I was sort of sad about reading the second book without ever reading the first, but the book was really good. my imagination build images in my head of what was happening with the amazing gizmos and fantastic gadgets of Captan Nemo. It took me several months to finish the book, but I was hooked on reading.

From that first novel, I ended up making regular trips to the library. I discovered the Hardy Boys mysteries series of 52 books. I decided to read the first book in the series; I had learned my lesson about starting mid-series. Again I was drawn in and over the course of a summer I read all 52 books, with only a few breaks to read a different book that caught my interest. After that I found the mystery and scifi section of the Meeker library–a whole two shelves of books. I started at one end and read to the other. I found all sorts of new authors like Ray Bradbury, Heinlein, Asmov, Andrea Norton, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tolkein and Terry Brooks. It took me another year to finish all the books in the library’s two shelves. After that we moved to Grand Junction and my reading pace slowed a bit as I gained my driver’s license and started spending more time outside than inside.

To this day, I don’t have television and prefer reading. I read a couple books a month on various topics from Roman and Mongol history to Harry Potter. I read mysteries, philosophy, science and main stream best sellers. I like them all, but seem to blast through scifi and fantasy books the quickest while struggling at a slower pace to plug through Stephen Hawkings Briefer History of Time. I am truly thankful to that 5th grade teacher who inspired me and put me on this life changing path.