I love reading. I really can’t remember when I didn’t “read’.
In 7th grade (which was Junior High School in our town), I do remember that I was at the city library so often–almost daily-- that they moved me from the ‘juvenile list’; I was allowed to check out the same amount of books as an adult. I think I was about 12 yrs old at the time; I’d go straight to the library after school. Or I’d ride my bicycle from our home to the city library.
The next year, we moved to the north end of town. That neighborhood was next door to a reserve Air Force Base where my dad worked; I often rode my bicycle to his office and visited him there; and I was allowed to use the base library. I remember one of the first books I checked out there–and the first science fiction book I read–was Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. I suppose that book made a strong impression on me since it’s the main book I remember from that time. But I do remember reading a lot of books like Nancy Drew, and Cherry Ames. The former is someone just about everyone has heard of; the latter is a series about a young woman starting out as a student nurse, and continuing through her nursing career. I’m sure there were a number of other authors and books that I don’t remember.
Then, one year when I visited my grandmother, she introduced me to Harlequin books. I think I had just gotten married. At that time, we collected ‘stamps’ whenever we bought groceries: ‘Green Stamps’. Well, every time I turned in a full ‘book’, I’d use the money to buy a Harlequin romance. Later, I joined a Harlequin book club and collected many paperback Harlequins. Then eventually, I joined another book club and started a hardcover book collection. I also found 2 local trading bookstores, so I would trade in my paperback books to get different books.
I eventually filled up several bookcases. Then, eventually, I decided I needed to ‘downsize’. I got rid of one tall bookcase. Now, I have three shelves of hardcover books in one tall bookcase; I now use the top three shelves for family photographs. My smaller bookcase now holds 1 shelf of hardback books and two shelves of paperbacks.
But now I’ve switched to reading digital books. I belong to several groups and ‘collect’ books that I can download to my computer. I now have about 3,000 digital books saved. I have several copies of that list, so I will never ‘accidentally’ lose them. As I read them, I’m slowly deleting some, only saving special ones.
I also have an Amazon account online. I now have over 8,000 books there–after deleting one thousand (different genres I decided I’d never read). I’ve been trying to read the Amazon books ‘first’ in case I ever lose internet, because of course, I’ll still have the other downloaded ones.
Now that I’m pretty much ‘housebound’, I usually read one book each day. I’ll admit my current favorites are ‘short’ books. With my current situation, I’m leaning toward ‘fluffy’ books–cozy mysteries. I do read some eLibrary books–again, cozy mysteries or romances. And with limited income, I can’t afford to ‘buy’ many books; luckily, I am finding quite a few ‘free’ books through my newsletters. I still can’t resist getting new books when I see something ‘special’. But I mainly only buy new books by my favorite author.
Obviously, I’ll never run out of books to read!
