I think it’s accurate to say that of all my diversions and pastimes, reading brings me the most pleasure. As a child, I fell in love with it even before I could actually read- I remember sitting with my mother in my bed and ‘reading’ books to her. Once I actually learned how to read I devoured everything I could get my grubby little hands on: Nancy Drew (all of em’), Tolkien, Louisa May Alcott (I think I read Little Women two hundred times) Madeleine L’engle, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Nietzsche (kidding)… you get the idea. My insatiable appetite for books led me to be quite a precocious reader. By the time I reached the fifth grade, my mother was screening and buying adult reading level books for me. My college roomates teased me and swore that if a tornado came for the house while I was reading, I’d be a goner because I’d never lift my head from the book.
For me, reading provides an escape unsurpassed by any other- although skiing, running, yoga, climbing, music, and movies are close contenders.
Here are some of my most treasured reads:
Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
I Am Charlotte Simmons- Tom Wolfe
Shantaram- Gregory David Roberts
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time- Mark Haddon
