As the child of a librarian, I spent most of my childhood with my nose in a book. Logically it could be said that I inherited my love of learning from my mother, simply because after school I'd help her shelve books and enjoy a sneak peak at all her new arrivals.
Or it could be said that because I lived in a rural community that did not offer daily neighborhood activities, my love of reading offered me a glance at worlds unknown.
I tend to think its a little of each of those things. I love to read because books are my friends. Living in such a rural area, it wasn't always possible to have friends over every day, I didn't get to go camping with my friends or spend my Saturdays at the mall so I learned to experience those things through the literary world.
The Baby-Sitter's Club may not be considered a collection of masterpieces but I experienced so much more with Stacy, Kristy and Claudia than I ever did in my own home town. I loved to ride horses in real life, but I got to go all the way to the Olympics with D.J. in the High Hurdles series. Throughout my teen years and into college, my literary choices became more mature and involved and while I've learned many valuable lessons by simply living my life- books have shown me that, really, anything is possible. I'm pretty sure I'll always hold out hope for a true love story because I've read Jane Eyre and if I ever had to select a literary twin, she'd be Jo from Little Women.
Now that I'm 25, and college is over, I find that any second I can steal away with a great page-turner is becoming more and more precious. I'm not the smartest cookie in the jar, but I love the feeling I get when I reach the conclusion of a good book, when the story has come to a close and all is right in the world of my new friends. I miss that feeling when my life gets so hectic and the quick story lines of television shows take over.
Hence, my 2010 New Years Resolution: A book a week, complete with an online book review. (In case you are wondering, I did recently see Julie & Julia and I do feel just a tad bit inspired... I hope this isn't as difficult as cooking so much food!)
First things first though, I'm not nice enough to actually give bad reviews... okay, so that might happen occasionally... but mostly I'll probably just talk about how these books apply to my life and what I got from the story, without giving too much away. We'll see how this develops along the way. I also hope to read a wide sampling from many different authors and genres. I have hundreds of books I've been collecting over the years so I plan to attack that pile, but if you have any recommendations- I'd love to hear them!
I hope you enjoy what I've got to say over the next 52 weeks and I hope I inspire you to turn off the television occasionally and pick up a good read!
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