250 Words on Falling in Love with Reading

[I try to start my day writing 250 words on anything. I’ll post one every Tuesday until I run out of good ones.]

I saw a Facebook post asking people about the first book that made them fall in love with reading. I liked the question but didn’t have a good answer.

I don’t remember a time I couldn’t read. Family lore says I read the names of gas stations at age 2. Mom, thinking I’d simply associated the brightly colored signs with words I’d heard on TV commercials, printed out “Conoco,” “Sinclair” and “Standard” on a piece of paper, which I read back to her. Freaked her out a bit. 

Comics were very important in my development as a reader. The combination of words and images drew me in, and continues to. It’s a powerful medium. But I don’t think that answers the spirit of the question.

Children’s books influenced me. I’ve written before* about You Will Go to the Moon by Mae and Ira Freeman, which I love despite the cruel lie in the title. But I don’t think that answers the spirit of the question, either.

The first book I can recall drawing me into another world and which I couldn’t put down until I found out what happened next was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. No idea how old I was, maybe 7 or 8, but those characters and scenes branded themselves on my brain and have stayed with me since. 

Good books feels like telepathy between authors and readers. I’ve been honored to have a few readers tell me my books have done that for them.

* On my blog: https://brianfies.blogspot.com/2009/07/you-will-go-to-moon.html?m=0

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