7/11/00

"When you read a book as a child it becomes part of your identity in a way no other reading in your whole life does."

I pinched the above quote from You've Got Mail. Lately, I have been buying books from my childhood. Last night I finally found a book I read when I was around 10 or 11--somewhere. Midnight Hour Encore by Bruce Brooks. It took me YEARS to track it down, because while I loved the book, details such as author and exact title of the book escaped me. This slim, easy to read volume influenced me and impacted me more so than anything I have ever read. I picked it up beecause of the cover, scroll to the bottom of that link and you'll see a full sized piccie. A young woman wrapped around a cello. My first dream, wish, and as yet unfulfilled dream was to play the cello. So I plucked the book from the shelf of my library and read a few pages. And immediately I felt at home. I just finished reading it a half hour ago. It took me roughly an hour and 45 minutes to read it form front to back. IT hit me then, how much of who I am is because of what I read a decade ago.

Which in turn explains why I am such an amalgamation of so many things. Why I can seriously sum myself up in one contradictory phrase. I am everything and nothing. I read books like a starving child eats at a banquet. I stuffed myself night and day with words...didn't care if they were boosk, magazines, newspapers, shampoo bottles...I read everything. All sort of books. The typical Judy Blume, Nancy Drew, Christopher Pike, Roald Dahl (that's what gives me my sense of pervsion apparently) to Little House On the Prairie, Hiedi, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, ...I could go ON. I remember the first day they taught us the fundemetals of reading I went home, closed the door to my room and sitting on my bed read the entire first grade primer. And I couldn't stop. Eventually I learned what sort of books I liked and didn't like. Hated drippy romance novels, craved suspense, loved a good adventure, and thristed after sci-fi and fantasy...among many others. My tastes still bounce around.

So on the journey of self-discovery one only has to look to the bookcases of our youth for the answers.

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