Reading

I've been an avid reader all my life. I don't know whether this due to heredity, Sesame Street, or loneliness; it's probably a combination of all three. I had a much larger vocabulary than most children my age when I was three, learned to read at four, and was reading several years ahead of my grade level when I was in elementary school.

People always call me extremely well-read, but when I think of all the classics I have yet to read, and especially when I look at how long my book wish list is, I feel quite illiterate. Still, I know I must have read more than many, because all that reading heavily impacted my spelling and vocabulary, to the extent that mine are now better than those of anyone I know.

My fondness for literature began in elementary school. I received a copy of Dickens' A Christmas Carol when I was six, and I've read it every Christmas ever since. I don't remember whether that were really the beginning. I remember reading classics like Treasure Island, Heidi, and Jane Eyre in elementary school, together with a lot of James Thurber.

Most of my reading for pleasure I did in junior high and high school. In sixth grade I read Frankenstein and was impressed enough that I had to read it at least two more times and, some five years later, ecstatically purchased an illustrated copy at Barnes and Noble. This incident led to a spectacular fight with my then-boyfriend, who had accompanied me on the trip. He had not read it and was utterly indifferent about it. (Idiot may actually have been jealous.) I was annoyed to the point of hostility and made him cry, though not deliberately. If it hadn't sunk in before, I definitely learned my lesson. From that point on, if I discovered that the guy in question did not read, I would not date him. I have even extended that rule to the point that if I go to someone's house and see that they don't have books, I just leave.

Anyway. Later in junior high, I picked up the pace with my reading and read all of the Anne of Green Gables books, The Scarlet Letter, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, some more of Dickens' works (I particularly liked A Tale of Two Cities.), and a lot of Steinbeck and Hemingway. While reading Steinbeck's two longest novels (The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden), I devised a system of dividing the book into very small parts to be read each night. I used the system the following summer while reading Doctor Zhivago, Les Misérables, and the Lord of the Rings series.

In high school I read everything by Douglas Adams and J. D. Salinger I could get my hands on. Both influenced me greatly, especially Salinger. Then I read some F. Scott Fitzgerald, and after I graduated, I spent the summer reading Anna Karenina using the same system of dividing it into small sections first.

Toward the end of high school and throughout my years at UT, I did not have time to read for pleasure. I did some reading for school, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't until I graduated UT that I found time for reading again. I read the entire Scarlet Pimpernel series online, and during my brief stint working in a comic book store, I read a lot of Terry Pratchett on my lunch breaks. When I started working theatre, I discovered fairly quickly that there's usually a long wait after the show before work begins, so I learned to bring books backstage to read on the loading dock while waiting. I read all of A Clockwork Orange, All the President's Men, The Old Gringo, and Darwin's The Origin of Species this way. Can't say my job doesn't have its perks.

Backstage isn't the only place I read, of course. I read at the computer, in bed, in the bathroom, while brushing my teeth, and on the bus. I have several times sought employment far enough away from the house that I could take the bus and thusly read on the way (though it's highly likely I'd end up knitting instead). But after reading all of Slaughterhouse Five in a Greyhound station, I am inclined to believe that reading may be a speedier way of passing the time.

At the moment, I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas, and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Upon completing that series, I'd like to read all of the Wizard of Oz, along with a bunch of other children's stuff I didn't read as a child because I was reading beyond my level. Dumas is so good I'll probably read everything by him pretty quickly. I might simultaneously read a bunch of Pratchett books since they're short and easy.

And now. The following link is to a page listing all the books I have (and their authors), along with whether I've gotten around to reading them, and any notes I have. The second link is to a page listing all the books I don't have and want to read. I think it may well be longer than the first page.