The Love of Words

I tried to think of hobbies I loved to do and found that the one I love the most only made me sound lame, but who cares?

I love to read. This is probably obvious in that I mention books quite often in previous blog posts. Though some are more challenging than others, navigating through stories of people's discoveries, adventures, tragedies and triumphs is one of my favorite things to do.

I started reading with a competitive spirit in mind. Mrs. Hammer's third grade class bred students with enthusiasm. We learned to play the ukelele, ran through exercise drills every morning, killed it in multiplication and bested all others in personal reading. The incentives were irrelevant (okay, I can't remember the incentives) but an entire wall was dedicated to who was best in class in every aspect.

Amanda Bagley and I were always one and two when it came to reading, alternating every week or so. She was of course one of my best friends and her mom was our girl scout leader. Man, it would grate when I came in at number two. This is when I would also read books I found in the library that were crazy above my reading level. Plot to The Red Badge of Courage? I don't think I ever knew!

I love this quote from Neil Gaiman which does a much better job to elucidate my point:

Sometimes fiction is a way of coping with the poison of the world in a way that lets us survive it. And I remembered. I would not be the person I am without the authors who made me what I am - the special ones, the wise ones, sometimes just the ones who got there first. It's not irrelevant, those moments of connection, those places where fiction saves your life. It's the most important thing there is.

Oh the practicing I must do!