If there's one thing that I value the most out of all the things that my father has taught me, it's the love of reading. I have always enjoyed reading for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a house filled with books and novels, owing to my father being a former high school English teacher. He loves to read and write. I was bound to love the same things.
Looking back, there was this book of poems that delighted me the most: Wider Than The Sky. It has a lot of lovely classic poems. I would leaf through the pages, taking in each beautiful word. It inspired me to write my own little poems, weaving words out of my young mind. I think that book sealed the deal for me. I can live without TV, I can live without people (to a certain extent), but I can never live without books.
A good book can transform a dull day into a magical one. It can transport you to places you can only dream of. It trancends time and space. It broadens your horizon; takes you out of the box. It makes you realize that people are so much different, yet so much alike.
I love the classics: Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger), To Kill a Mocking Bird (Harper Lee), Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevski), Little Women (Louisa May Alcott), Dracula (Bram Stoker), The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka), Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (J.R.R. Tolkien), The World According to Garp (John Irving), Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)...the list goes on and on. Some of the recent ones I enjoyed are The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz), The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery) and Saturday (Ian McEwan).
I can go to a bookshop and stay there all day, with a huge smile on my face. If money were not an issue, I would have a copy of all the books that are dear to me. I'm slowly building my stack, hoping one day to have enough to merit buying a proper bookshelf. I left all my books at home when I moved to Japan, then to Texas.
Yesterday, I went to Barnes and Nobles to get the books that I need for Fall Semester and ended up buying a spy thriller I've been meaning to read for only $5.98. I'm a happy shopper.
The Monster of Florence is the most fascinating serial killer of the 20th century, murdering 16 people between 1968 and 1985. According to the authors Preston and Spezi, the killer is still out there. The Hannibal Lecter character was also loosely inspired from the events in Florence. Can't wait to crack this one open; haven't read a mystery novel in years.
checking out The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; next on my list since I thoroughly enjoyed the movie
someday I'll put up my own bookshop :-)
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