My Reading Philosophy

I learned to read in 1958 when I was a member of Mrs. Read’s first grade class, in a two-room schoolhouse in Niskayuna, New York. From the moment I felt the magic of being carried away by an author’s voice, I always managed to find the time to read. If I was supposed to be cleaning my room, I was sitting on the bed reading. If I had to go and visit my grandmother, I brought a book to read in the car. To this day, I never go anywhere without a book. Books make me think, laugh, cry, feel, and help me understand human nature and history. They never argue with me. When I don't like one anymore, I don't need to say..."gee, I can't read you tonight because I am washing my hair...". Instead, I gently but firmly place it in the return slot at the library.

I have always liked read some books over and over. These are my oldest and dearest friends...."Little Women", "Catcher in the Rye", "Madame Bovary", the "Claudia" series, "Valley of the Dolls", "Jean and Johnny", "Seventeenth Summer", "Franny and Zooey", “Far From the Madding Crowd”, “A Christmas Carol”, "Gone With the Wind", "Diary of Anne Frank", "Goodbye Columbus", ALL of Barbara Pym's books, "Something in the Wind", "Catch 22", "Player Piano", "The Thornbirds", “The Risk Pool”, “The Nun’s Story”....these books have consoled me when I was heartbroken, inspired me when I needed hope, and comforted me through the rainy days of my life.

I first went to the library on the "Bookmobile", which made a stop on my street every other week. When my mother and I would go on the Bookmobile, she would let me take any book I liked. So, by third grade, I was reading adult novels. I probably read "Peyton Place" by the time I was ten. I would choose books at random, but always liked it better if a woman wrote the book. When I was a teenager and our family was invited to peoples' camps on Lake George, my mother would sometimes go to the store and pick out the fattest book on the shelf for me because I would finish books so quickly

I will devote each entry to either a book or an author and hopefully introduce some new choices to those of us who always find time enough to read. Beth, this means you!