Going way
back to childhood I would have to trace my passion for reading to my mother
even today still fondly remembers reading at least once everyday to my brother
and I these special times obviously left an impression on both of us since we
both spend a lot of time reading and excelled in reading and writing from a
young age.
I remember
in early years of school becoming easily bored (and therefore disruptive!) as I
flew through the primary readers with less than 15 words per page (“See Spot
Run” ya that took a lot of effort) and being the first in my class to graduate
to chapter books. In later years I was taken right out of my grade 4 reading
time and sent to the lower grade to buddy up with a student and help them with
their reading skills since typically I was done that month’s book within 2-4
days.
I
commiserate with today’s teens suffering from “text neck” (soreness of the neck
and upper back from slouching to stealthily send texts when you shouldn’t be)
as I can probably attribute my life long struggle with tension headaches and
shoulder pain to the hours spent in class slouched down and hunched over to
read from the novel I had hidden halfway into my desk (though my father blames
my back problems on my brother once launching me off a teeter totter as a
toddler).
As I
discovered series of youth and teen books (all my love to Baby Sitters Club,
Sweet Valley Twins, Goosebumps and Fear Street) I would devour one after another sometimes
reading more than one book in a single day. I would feign “bathroom troubles”
to stay up reading late at night in the bathroom and when my parents caught on
to that one I stole a flashlight from my dad’s toolbox to sit under covers and
continue. Eventually this ruse was caught on and I was forced to sleep after
bedtime rather then read my current novel until a faithful book fair day brought
me a new enabler for this addiction…
To be continued....
Cheers!!
Dana Lynn
