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I thought I would introduce myself to you as a reader. I want to share what I like and how reading has shaped my life, and what my relationship with reading has been.
Lifelong Reader
To begin, I have, for as long as I can remember, immensely enjoyed reading. I don't even remember learning how to read. I've been able to spell since an early age, and words have always been what drives my mind. I was one of those kids who always had a book or three, stayed up reading until morning, and walked down the hall or the street, navigating by peripheral perception and the odd glance over the book. I remember always taking a book, no matter where I was going, just in case I got bored or had a moment of boredom. (Honestly, I still do that today. I've taken a book to a football match, a basketball game, the movie theater, and many restaurants).
I was always the kid in class that was reading way above grade level. I started reading Shakespeare in 7th grade, and had finished The Three Musketeers before high school. It was a matter of pride for me, but now that I'm older, I have sadly realized that it was one of those "achievements" that actually means little in the real world.
In terms of genre preferences, I have always been drawn to the classics, as you can see. I grew up with a miniature set of Beatrix Potter's tales, and I have loved The Secret Garden ever since I saw the 1993 version with Maggie Smith. I have loved Shakespeare since I started reading his work, and my favorite books still remain firmly planted in the "classic" or "literary" genres: Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, Mansfield Park, Wives and Daughters, Shirley, and many more. It's so hard to choose a favorite.
I cannot leave out a foundational love of fantasy, however. I remember devouring The Prydain Chronicles, The Inheritance Cycle, and The Lord of the Rings. Some of my favorite memories are
going with my dad to the midnight release parties for each new Harry Potter book, as well as having finished them by two or three days later. I think I have read the entire series eight or nine times, though it has been a while, and I would like to reread them at some point.
As I've grown older, the books I have been reading most are actually nonfiction. I love a good narrative history, and my favorites are all written by Dan Jones, whose Friday Lives on Facebook were hilarious during the lockdown. I just finished and restarted The Plantagenets, and have read Powers and Thrones twice. I even ordered In The Reign of King John from the UK because it wasn't available here. In my adult years I have become quite the medievalist, which I certainly would not have predicted earlier in life.
I have listened to several history audiobooks whose subjects range from the Romanovs and Marie Antoinette's daughter to the sisters of Jane Grey (the nine days queen) and the Templars. My taste in history varies widely as it is directed by my capricious, interest-driven ADHD brain (which probably also explains why I am somewhere in the middle of nearly every book on my bookshelves).
Shy Reader
While I love a good book discussion, I have never had the desire to go to a book club. First, I generally hate reading what other people tell me to when they tell me to. I don't like having my reading choices imposed upon. Part of that is due to my propensity for reading more books than is advisable at one time. My brain follows interest, and reading one book at a time, much like knitting one project at a time, is a skill I doubt I'll ever master. Maybe this blog will help me concentrate?
Critical, Reflective, and Evaluative Reader
In my reading, I have always drawn parallels to myself and my experiences. To see that my struggles, my hopes, and even my thoughts are not mine alone has always been a comforting feeling. I am also highly empathetic, so the catharsis of having my feelings justified and reading characters saying what I wanted to say is a way for me to work through my own troubles and trials in life. It is also good for me to see and understand the points of view of the characters that are unlike me; it helps me to have
well-rounded emotions, and a healthy emotional intelligence, which, I feel, can really only come from reading.
In high school, I signed up for AP English. My homeroom teacher, wonderful man that he is, made sure that I was put into Mrs. Wong's class, and I will forever be grateful that he did. Mrs. Wong's AP English class was a turning-point in my life, and gave me friends that I still have today. We read several books that year, including Grendel, "Beowulf", Heart of Darkness, Jane Eyre, and Wide Sargasso Sea, each of which changed me in different ways and has stayed with me ever since. The most important lesson I learned in that class, however, was how to critically think about, research topics in, and question any text I read. We had classroom discussions that still reverberate in my head. That class remains my most memorable and beloved, despite us having to put our desks in a circle, which I (still) despise. (Give me a traditional classroom, please!).
Highbrow Reader?
I have been accused of being a literature snob, which hurts a little, but is also true a little. My cousin, a high-school English teacher, and I are polar opposites when it comes to reading, and she laughs at my reading choices (though I do not claim to understand hers). We talk about reading and books all the time, and I think we are good for each other. Someday I will get her to read Jane Eyre, and someday she will get me to read John Steinbeck. We'll see.
I am highly opinionated in all facets of my life, and my taste in reading is no different. I tried to read Gone with the Wind and The Grapes of Wrath, and wanted to throw both of them at someone partway through. I never finished either one. I have told myself that I would give them another chance, but really, life is not long enough to read what you don't enjoy. The same goes for most modern fiction, especially the YA stuff. I read two of Sarah J. Maas's books because a student asked me to, but I wouldn't read them for pleasure.
One of the pleasures I find in reading is beautiful writing, which I have found sorely lacking in more modern fiction, so my choices tend to come from much earlier writers. For purely beautiful writing (despite the headache of keeping up with what's happening), I recommend reading Henry James. I
enjoy his extensive vocabulary and the poetic quality in his prose; I would love to find it in a modern writer. In my soul, I have always been a Romantic. I have, from earliest days, been at home with Beethoven, John Keats, Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, all three of the Brontës, William Cullen Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sir Walter Scott, Robert and Clara Schumann, and Frédéric Chopin. It's really no wonder that most of my favorite literature comes from this period.
I have often said that Virginia Woolf or WWI is my cutoff point - I don't read much more modern than that. There are exceptions, as with everything, however, and there are some modern writers I have enjoyed. I loved The English Patient, cried with The Kite Runner (and also never read it again), and enjoyed several of Amy Tan's works, including Saving Fish from Drowning. I also have several modern novels on my TBR list, including Never Let Me Go, Wolf Hall, Midnight's Children, White Teeth, and The God of Small Things (which I read in high school but have forgotten and would like to read again). Part of the problem for me, I think, is also that modern writing tends to be much more conversational in it's language and vulgar in its choice of subjects.
Always Rereading
I am, and always will be, a serial re-reader of books. I come back to them time and again for the same experience, but every read takes me deeper into the story, helps me make connections I had heretofore missed, and brings the enjoyment back with the knowledge of what is coming next. Harry Potter, Jane Eyre, most of Jane Austen, and Frankenstein are all regularly in my reading rotation. I will say, though, that parenthood has had a negative effect on my reading over the past four years. I am starting to read more again as my son gets older, however, and it feels good to be back.
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