My Favorite Books as A Child

Posted by Amy Brotherman on August 19th, 2019

I was inspired the other day to write this article after publishing a blog post of my own with a list of gift ideas for readers. I wondered, "How many of you would consider yourself a bookworm? Or even a 'reader'"?

I was always the kid with my nose in a good book - I'd literally walk into a wall or a door, oblivious to my surroundings, and intent upon flipping the page to get to the next chapter. I'd sneak books into every spare moment of my day - reading at the table, sneaking in a few extra chapters at night after lights out, and on and on.

That love of reading has persisted well into adulthood. I love to read for pleasure. I've noticed that a lot of adults these days say that sure, they love to read, but then I notice the subject material they choose is always - informational, self-help, inspiration, etc.

This is not what I'm talking about when I say I love to read. I mean, when I settle into a good book (and especially the well-loved authors whose writings I crave), I am about to be transformed into another person, head off into another world. 

I'm about to encounter a whole new place where I've never stepped foot. I'm going to smell the smells of 1,000 years ago, and feel the feelings of a 90 year old man or woman who just took her terrible children out of her will.

I'm going to become a doctor, a taxi-cab driver, a fry-cook, a ballerina.

And I'm going to love every minute of it.

My favorite authors all know how to build incredible characters. They speak their story so richly that I am transported, almost as if I become the character in the book, and I can sense and feel so strongly their surroundings, feelings, and situations that they become my own.

Is this what you mean when you say you love to read? Because every true bookworm will know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. We feel it's a tragedy to not love books in this way, because it makes you a better person to have lived other lives, to have experienced through a book what others have.

I'm struggling to instill this in my kids. The digital world has somewhat stripped away this love of reading. I know very few of my kid's friends who I would call "readers". My own will choose their phone, a game or a movie over a book any day. I hate that! But still I persist in teaching them a love of reading, because I hope that one day, they will find great comfort in the beauty of a book, the way I have.

What about you? Is this the kind of reader you are? Are you able to connect with "non-readers" the way you are with readers of our kind? And one more question - are you teaching your kids to be this kind of lover of books? Please share if you have any advice for us booklovers trying to pass it down.

Next time I see you, I probably won't. My nose will be buried in a good book. :)