On Reading Books

As a child, I was an avid reader. The only way that my parents could probably truly punish me would be to take away my precious books or make me turn off the light to go to bed at night (not that I got into trouble that often).

I was just realizing that the types of books I read has changed over the years.

As a child I went through my Baby Sitters Club and Nancy Drew phases and I always had a strong love for classics such as Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, The Secret Garden and The Little Princess.

In my early teenage years, I read as many books on the holocaust that I could get my hands on, including the The Diary of Anne Frank and Night.

As I continued with my education, classics such as The Pearl, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Jungle and Animal Farm became a part of my reading.

During high school I grew to love the works of Jane Austen and Shakespeare. At this time I also had a love for John Grisham and Mary Higgins Clark. Though now I would consider those authors too systematic in their writing - I always had an idea of what to expect.

Now as an adult, I find most of my reading revolves around non-fiction topics that I am interested in. Somewhere along the line, my desire to read fiction grew into a desire to know more about the world around me.

Occasionally I will still pick up a work of fiction, but non-fiction rules my life. The Bible has been the one book that has been a constant in my life.