Day #4

On Literature
Assignment from Try This exercises: Compose a short autobiographical sketch in which you describe your experience with literature over the years.

From the time I learned to read I have been a rabid reader. From the ages of 10 to 13 I have read every book in the juvenile section of the small town where my grandparents lived. Most of the time if my mother wanted me for a chore she could not find me because I was off somewhere deeply engrossed in a book. I have never quite figured out why but as child and through most of my first thirty-five years of life I wanted to be someone other than who I was. Books allowed me to be someone else for a little while. It may have also been that in my childhood we did not have television. I was ten before my family purchased a television and by then Iwas already an avid reader. Also the selection of television shows really did not appeal to me.
As I got older, got married and had my daughter books continued to be escapes and it was not uncommon when I would find a particularly interest book and read it from cover to cover without stopping. Now I won't claim that all of those books were good classic literature. I'm not certain that a majority of them could even be considered literature. However, some were. I can even remember as a high school student coming across a section in the local library that contained college literature textbooks and reading those. It did not matter to me if they were English Literature or American Literature. I just enjoy the written word and stories. I can not remember a time when there were not a collection of books in my home.
It is difficult for me to name favorite authors because over the years my tastes have changed and I have read so many books it is impossible to pick just one favorite.
At times I get locked into a particular genre. For years when I first went back to college it was mysteries. Since I worked nighttimes on the weekend I went through them quickly. At one time I had read every mystery in that section of fictional literature at the Arab library. I also had many they did not have that I had been given by friends or bought.
The two thing that my husband says I have too many/much of is books and yarn. My current reading list includes Christian Literature both fiction and non-fiction. However, I do still go to the library and get certain classics from this genre. I also have started in recent years to read several books at one time. I am fairly certain that my love for stories will continue until I die. This is particularly true since the introduction of audio books. Before I take long trips now days I get several audio books to listen to as I drive/ride.
For me Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Lifeway, and Family Christian Book Store are candy stores. I am usually not much of a shopper except when it comes to books and shoes. I still spend an average of one-three hours everyday reading. I currently have four new books ordered from my book club and usually order from four to ten books a month. When I finish reading them I take them to co-workers if they are fiction and donate or resale the non-fiction. If I did not do this there would not be room here in my writing/crafting room to sit or work.