Sunday, March 18, 2012

For the Love of Reading

"Becoming the reader is the essence of becoming a writer." ~ John O'Hara 

Thanks to doting parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles I became a reader at a very early age. My appetite for words could only be described as voracious. Once I figured out letters formed words, and words formed sentences, and sentences formed magical places, I used books as a means to visit different places, to dream up my own stories, but mostly just to escape.

I still read several books per month, and both my boys enjoy reading. My husband dislikes reading for pleasure. He really likes reading to learn, though. He'll devour a magazine about hunting or fishing, but leave most books on the topic sitting on the bedside table, untouched.

This morning, as I sat in bed with my laptop and worked, my husband lay across the bed in the opposite direction reading a full-length novel that he picked out and purchased one day last week while he was out shopping and I was working from home. It was one of the best mornings we've had in a long while.

Never give up hope that someone will grow to share your love of books. They may just surprise you.