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Friday, February 12, 2010

I'M ALWAY READING

In case you're wondering how I go through books so quickly, thought I'd jot a few thoughts since after all this is a blog. I guess I don't have to just write book reviews.

When I was about 9 or 10 years old, I discovered Miriam Clark Potters' GOOFY MRS. GOOSE IN ANIMALTOWN series and I was hooked! I've been a serious reader ever since. Many thanks to the Newark Public Library, especially the Bergen Street Branch.

In my late teens I moved out on my own and started reading classics by Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Franz Kafka, Leo Tolstoy, J.D.Salinger, Tolkien, Ayn Rand and many others. Somewhere between Margaret Mead, Nostradamus, William Goldman, Woodstock (the festival) and The Zipless Fuck, I met and married my first husband.

I'm embarassed to admit that as a new young mother after the birth of my first son, I succumbed to those awful bodice ripping Harlequin Romances. I was really busy with work and motherhood and they were just so easy and didn't require much concentration. Phew, glad that phase didn't last long!

And then along came Stephen King and Dean Koontz.....just wonderful! In fact, after reading THE SHINING I wrote my first (and only) fan letter to an author, asking Stephen King why he couldn't write faster. C'mon, c'mon Stephen, we're waiting! Not surprised I never got a response.

How interesting in retrospect that around the time of my divorce from my first husband, I turned to Truman Capote, which led to other nonfiction murder books. What was I thinking?

I was well on my way to reading mysteries, thrillers, spy novels and chick lit when I met and married my second husband and had my second son. Memoirs got jumbled into the mix along the way.

I guess you could say I've lived my life with books; from preadolescence to postmenopause, through all of life's joys and dramas, I've carried a book with me, tucked into a lunchbag, bookbag, purse or suitcase.

1 comment:

  1. Carl M. Ostergaard, Jr.February 17, 2010 at 4:27 PM

    This is great, Lynn! I read what I read, but you have inspired me to think about why I like the topics I like and the origins of what I have read, and when.

    This is a really cool blog ! = )

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