07 December 2005

Reading Secrets Tag

I was tagged yesterday by the Madame, so now you get to read my dirty little reading secrets . . .

1. I majored in English. Still I never read The Scarlet Letter. Nearly every high school student in the U.S. read this classic, but I somehow missed it in transitioning among three high schools. So . . . here am I, age 27 with only fleeting knowledge of the big red “A.”

2. When I was in elementary school my mom removed the night light from my room because I would stay up all night reading.

3. She took my flashlight a few nights later since I was a thrifty little determined reader.

4. I quickly learned that if you opened the blinds and angled in the bed just right, there was a certain slant of light that entered the room from the streetlight and was just perfect for flashlight and night light-free late-night reading sessions. My eyes will one day pay me back for this, no doubt.

5. I was reading the many dramas of The Babysitter’s Club (moment of silence for Kristy, Claudia, Mallory, Dawn, Stacey and Jessie, please) during my late-night reading sessions. Sorry to disappoint those of you who thought I was a super smart kid reading philosophy or super spiritual kid reading the Word of God.

6. I graduated from the BSC to Sweet Valley's college series but soon got into Sweet Valley High. I don’t know why I started in adulthood and crawled back into adolescence. Lila Fowler just really drove me mad!

7. I used to ADORE the Ramona and Beezus books when I was a child. And SuperFudge!!! Yay!

8. When it got dark in the car, and I could no longer read on our many long road trips, my parents wouldn’t turn on the overhead light because it was dangerous. So I would hope people would ride the tail end of our car so that I could hold up my book and catch their light. How’s that for creative thinking? I would not be nearly as creative if my parents would have just let me read! Thanks, Parental Units!

9. My mom used to read stories to me that she had written. I still think of them now as some of my favorite children’s books. Then I have to remember that they were never published . . . not yet anyway. They were great!

10. After graduating college I caught BOD—Book Overload Disorder. No matter how much I wanted to read something, I could not finish a novel from summer 2001 to spring 2003. Yes, I was ill for nearly 2 full years, picking up great novels and completing only two chapters at the most. I did get in a fine collection of short stories during that time, though. And my poetry reading continued, as per usual. Whew! Fortunately, I have since shaken the disease. The first post-college novel to cure the disease? Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Now it’s back to late-night reading in my room for however long I want to keep on the light each night! ☺

7 comments:

Ciona said...

Oh, and I have an eleventh, but I think the game calls for only 10, so I'll just write it here in the comment section:

I do not like dust jackets. I always remove them. And I don't recycle them. I pile them on top of each other in my room until I finish reading a book. Sometimes I put them back on the book. Sometimes I just let them sit there and place the book on the shelf to look beautiful all on its own!

kwpershey said...

I read soooo many BSC books when I was little. It was my dirty little secret when I was an English major. (I still have a hard time admitting my other obsession... Sweet Valley High.)

Stephanie said...

#2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and part of 10 - except that Toni Morrison was my entry back into the reading world -are true for me, too. I didn't remember Sweet Valley books, but I remember the name Lila Fowler, so either I read them or acted them out at some point in childhood. My friends and I used to act out the storylines from our favorite books. Remember The Boxcar Children? I spent many afternoons as a Boxcar Child in my backyard. Also, we had a Tiffany fan-club underneath the tree, but that's a story for another time ...

ss

Ciona said...

Oh, Tiffany! Those were the days . . . I think we're alone now. There doesn't seem to be anyone around!

Anonymous said...

Awesome! I loved Baby-sitter's Club. I wanted to BE Claudia.

I take off dust jackets a lot too.

Kami Rice said...

I can relate all too well to too much of what you wrote here, Ciona! I just donated all of my Sweet Valley High books to a book drive my work did for a local school's library. It was really hard to let them go. And, then, I later helped shelve and organize the books in the library and had to fight the urge to sneak the box out of the school and back to safety in my car.

A couple friends and I would loan to each other various books from the Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley High and Nancy Drew and Nancy Drew Files series.

litprof said...

You left out Mary Anne!