I love to read.  I remember when I badly wanted to learn to read so when I was in kindergarten, my teacher Miss Daisy (isn't that the perfect name for a kindergarten teacher?) kept a few of us after school and introduced us to Dick, Jane, Spot, and Fluffy.  Oh. Can't forget Mother and Father. Soon enough I began figuring out how to read words on my own.  My parents didn't seem too impressed but they didn't need to be because I was so proud of myself and so happy to be in this new world of words and books.

The adventures in reading began. In third grade, we got to go to the library and check out books that we could actually take home. Mary Poppins became a favorite grown-up and my cousin Patty read Winnie the Pooh to my brother and me. All those characters became real.

Junior high and high school years didn't lend themselves to much leisure reading but I still made time for recreational reading.  I saw Romeo and Juliet in Ashland when I was 15 and was hooked on Shakespeare. I carefully hid the plays under my desk and read them while my Modern Problems teacher talked in the front of the room about something important.  Her subject  couldn't have been near as intriguing as the spells cast by the witches in Macbeth or as sad as what happened to Lennie in Of Mice and Men. 

College left no time for leisure reading but what we read in literature classes captivated me. Everything from Beowulf to my favorite poet e.e. cummings became reality to me.  

After college, I started teaching literature myself so I got to spend many more hours exploring those other worlds in books. I think I read Hamlet at least a dozen times.  Interestingly, I declared in my early 20's that I wouldn't read  Hamlet until I was 30. I smugly figured I could get by without that famous Dane in my life until I was the age of Hamlet himself. I made it and still received A's in my English lit classes.  

I read everything now but I have to say that I'm glad I don't have to read student essays anymore. The Great Alone was much better and held my attention for hours.  

I highly recommend that you read that last book mentioned. What a story about life off the grid in Alaska with strong characters who battle their way through some ugly life events. I still read the newspaper on the few days we still receive it. And not one back of cereal box has gone unread in this household!