I have read as long as I can remember.
I loved The Ramona series by Beverly Cleary, and devoured Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys books. When I was in the 7th grade, the school librarian gave me "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. I finished it in just a matter of days. That is the first "grown-up" book I can remember reading. From there, I read the John Jakes' North and South trilogy and became mesmerized by the vampires in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles books.
Books have increased my imagination, broadened my vocabulary, widened my viewpoint, given me empathy ... and some books have also damaged me. But that's another post. The more I read, the better I am at it. It hones my concentration, helps me focus, and I read faster now than I used to. With reading, too, practice helps.
So, why do I read? I read because it adds so much to my life. I travel to new places, meet historical figures and make fictional friends. But most and best of all, because it makes me curious. I look up unfamiliar words and add them to my vocabulary, note favorite sentences and passages in my reading notebook, print maps from favorite books, draw family trees for those character-heavy stories, and learn more and more about history.
Reading adds wonderful and varied layers to make me who I am. I am a woman with many chapters, adding more each year.
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