TwitterJun 07 2010
My love for the written word . . .
Have I mentioned…I love the written word? LOL. I do think I have…more than a few times. I adore books, they grow everywhere I am. So tonight I thought I’d share a quick little memory/story of where this all began. It actually began a little before this, however that wasn’t quite as significant as this… I was a few months into second grade. My teacher had apparently called my mom about her concern that I wasn’t reading outside of reading circle. I didn’t even appear to enjoy reading. So that night my mother made me sit at the dining room table and read for 20 minutes. I was told that this was something that I would be required to do daily…and there didn’t seem to be an end in site.
I was a very compliant child. Afraid not to do as I was told. I had little concept of what it meant not to obey most especially when I was right under my mother’s nose. Unlike one or two of my children, who had I even attempted such a method against their will or interest would have sat there, looking around, book on table, or possibly in their hand, not reading a word, no matter how much I prodded them to read. No, I wasn’t like that I took the book she had for me, slumped into my chair, opened the cover with a quiet sigh, marked the time when I would be done, and began to read, counting each tedious minute as it ticked by.
A few days later I had library at school, and this was where my school librarian played a heavy role in my life, I don’t remember her name, or her face. But what I do remember that she LOVED books and she smiled a lot. I told her my unfortunate, annoying dilemma. I remember her eyes twinkled from the broad smile on her face. She told me, “I have just the book for you, follow me.” We walked along the wall of books that were in my age range and stopped at the far end. Then she reached out and hitched her finger on the binding of a hard covered, cornflower colored book, about an inch thick. Then she place it into my hands. I looked at the cover, it had a picture of a cute robot on the front with a planet in the back ground. “I think you’re going to enjoy that book Theresa, I loved it.” “Okay,” I said with a shrug, “thank you,” then turned, went to the desk, checked it out, took it to class, and shoved into my desk.
Later that night I again examined the cover, “The picture’s cute at least”, I sighed rolled my eyes then opened to the first page. But this time when my 20 minutes were up I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I was unashamedly hooked. I have no idea how much longer I read or what the title was that made me fall head over heels in love with reading but I can tell you it was about a robot from space and there were three in the series. (Thus began my passion for series.) From that day forward I went to library hungry for another book and looked to the same Librarian to guide me to another book.
All summer long I walked to the local library spent languishing time scanning the stacks and forming a deep pile int my arms. Although my walk home was considerable I never let it detour me from bringing home every book that my heart fancied and I knew I could read in a week. Once my eyes devoured that pile I returned to get another. And from that day till now I have surrounded myself and my children with books. All my children have cut their teeth on them both literally and figuratively and I’m happy to say some do love reading while some some find it tedious. However even my soon to be 20 year old daughter, who is one who finds it tedious and why she does I’ll never understand, stills loves for me to read to her and if I could would have me read book after book while she listened with rapt attention. If only there were time…
Love ya,
Theresa Jane
-who loves her first librarian and is thankful to her mother for making her sit at that dining room table for 20 minutes a day
Really enjoyable story, TJ. It totally made me remember my own experiences with school librarians and how my own love of reading progressed. Thank you.