"HIRAM GRANGE & THE CHOSEN ONE moves fast, fun and furious... I couldn't put it down! And now I'll be looking for the other entries in the series. If you've always thirsted for James Bond to have a serving of Lovecraft -- you'll eat this one up."
This from Stoker Winning Author John Everson! A good way to start the day, indeed. Now, onto the blog.
I usually don't do the ask-a-question-on-my-blog-thing: mostly for two reasons:
1. Everyone else has already asked the same questions
2. I'm deathly afraid that no one will bother to answer
But, this blog has become more and more about me writing for internal reasons, rather than hoping for comments, so as of this morning, I've actually got a question, and I don't mind if no one answers, really, because the question itself is incidental to the rest of the blog post.
So, the question is this: If you're like me and are absolutely OBSESSED with reading and books - when did this obsession first hit? When did it become an all-consuming NEED?
I know when I first got into the "speculative" genre - when my parents got me my first box set of Star Trek five-year mission novels. I was hooked on strange new worlds and out of the box stories, from that point on.
But when did the reading mania begin? I was reminded of it last night at my daughter's first open house for Kindergarten. Book Fairs. That's when it began.
This may not seem like much to some of you...but it was like HEAVEN to me.
See, I was raised in a slightly different generation, by slightly old school parents, even by that generation's definitions. They didn't indulge us much. Don't get me wrong. We weren't deprived, and seeing as how I've taught OVER INDULGED students for the past 10 years, it was a good thing. We learned right away that just because we wanted something, or even if Dad could afford it, didn't mean we got it.
However, one thing my parents ALWAYS indulged me with? Books. Reading. That early experience in elementary school set the tone, because when the book fair rolled around....
I could have WHATEVER book I wanted. As many as I wanted. Which, to me, meant this:
I could go to as many worlds as I wanted. Travel to as many distant lands as I could imagine. Experience adventures to the limit of my imaginations, and it was a thirst that suddenly became unquenchable.
I have been blessed with people who have fed that thirst. When I was in sixth grade, my teacher let me walk ALL THE WAY over to the high school to check out library books, because I'd already exhausted the elementary library's resources several times over.
When I was fourteen, after desperately lusting over a whole shelf full of old, hardcover 1940's detective pulp novels in my great grandmother's trailer, I asked if I could read one, and she started giving me one pulp novel a week, and when she passed on, she left the rest to me. Still have all of them, to this day. Around the same time, my parents started allowing me to use my allowance to buy comic books at the mall.
In my teens and early college years, for Christmas and birthdays, I'd make a list of books my parents could buy, and they fed my thirst again.
But it started at the those book fairs. Choose Your Own Adventure Books. Sports books, both fiction and non. Books about dinosaurs and lizards and sharks and haunted houses. Whatever I wanted when it came to books, my parents got.
And I'm passing that on to Madi. It's really the only thing I indulge her in. Whenever a vendor comes into the high school to sell things, I always buy her books. Just randomly, I'll get her books off Amazon. We can't afford to get Madi all the things her friends and even cousins get.
But we can afford books. And, so far: she loves them just as much as me. That's a desire I'll indulge until my dying day.
So. When did you first fall in love with books?
Hey Kevin,
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about your question and thought about my own writing journey. I started out drawing. When I was 5 or 6 my cousin showed me how to draw a plane. I was hooked. I drew anything and everything, but with a dark side twist. Snoopy with scales for instances. Reading was a struggle through 6th grade until I found a book with all kinds of mythical monsters in a local toy store, the D&D Monster Manual. From there I learn, nay craved, any myths or legends.
Through my high school gaming buddies, I was introduced to “Elric of Melnibone,” by Michael Moorcock. It the first book I ever read through. I still have it with me today. I started writing in high school but when a trusted friend tore down my first poem, my confidence was destroyed. It was only decades later I started writing again.
A few post ago, you mentioned going to some workshops/Cons and your writing style changed dramatically. I’d like to learn more about what you discovered sometime.
-Tim R.
ps. Thanks for the question.
Nice Question, Kevin!
ReplyDeleteI started reading, seriously reading—being caught up in other worlds and dreams—very young. Age 7 or 8 I was reading on my own, non-stop. It was an escape from a cloistered and sterile life, and I would read anything I could get my hands on. Our only "allowed" reading material was from the church, so I had to sneak books from the library and hide them in strange places, and perhaps that's why books became even more precious to me personally. Thankfully, I had some teachers and local librarians who saw the need in me who indulged and nurtured my reading, who steered me away from the regular schlop into more inspiring and insightful realms. By Middle School I was extremely familiar with not only the escapism of spec. fic., but also many classics. Books got me through high school, kept my spirits and my intellect and my dreams alive (at least one book per night in my teens, hidden under the covers and out in the barn), until I could begin to live out my dreams, even if not nearly as wild as depicted on those pages.
Words can inspire, yes, but they can also help build confidence and entire worlds. And I have yet to find anything in my life that comes close to their power.
Absolutely, Danny. Even do to this day, I shudder to think what would happen if I didn't have time every day to read. AND, I have to thank my teachers also. Books also helped me settle down in school, because I was bit of a wild one - some behavioral issues - and I noticed early on that the "reader" we used in school was way too easy for me, and that some special others were in an advanced reading group. I begged to be let into that group, and they made me a deal about behaving better - and they'd let me in.
ReplyDeleteI was totally desperate to get in, and managed it. A far cry from today when we're told to dangle electronic temptations in front of kids to get them to behave...
Tim - I can say without a doubt that while I'll be happy to take credit for the hard work I've done myself (because if I didn't, both Danny and my wife might flog me) but EVERYTHING I did in HGCO is a product of Borderlands Press Writers Bootcamp. (I'll Facebook the link to you). It's pricey, but it was the first thing I ever attended, and it's all about the WRITING, which really is the most important thing.
ReplyDeleteThe cons are cool, I love hanging with the Shroudies and people like Rio and Kelly Owen and Bob Ford and Brian Keene, and I have to admit I've made lot of writing contacts in the past year. HOWEVER, if the writing isn't there, those contacts mean nothing, and my writing is THERE because of (yes, Danny, my own hard work) Borderlands Press.
I don't remember when I *didn't* have a book handy. I know that my Mom taught me to read before I started school and I thought that was normal - until I got to school and watched the other kids as they learned to read.
ReplyDeleteLibrary time was always my favorite day of the week. Then, I met the lady who drove the BookMobile and I thought she had the coolest job ever! I was 6 or 7. What did I know.
As far as "needing" a book....I'd have to say 10th grade. I was required to do a book report. I didn't care much about the assignment itself until I found a new-to-me-author. Tom Clancy's Patriot Games was a new addition to the HS Library. The cover art caught my eye. The story kept my brain. My leisure reading time slowed in college and picked up again as soon after. If all is going well I'll read a book a week and enjoy it. When I've really gotten hooked on a book it is a 1-2 day affair over the weekend. I've had as many as 3 different book being read at one time. Something in the AM, something different after work, and a 3rd just for kicks before bed. When I'm doing this it is usually 3 different types with at least 1 non-fiction in the mix.
I did find that I was going broke amassing hardcover books over the last 20 years. In the last 5 years or so the public library and I have become very well acquainted.
Janice and I take the girls to the library because they have the same love of reading that Janice and I have. It became easier to buy fewer books for home and to support the library so our girls can have more fun reading.
Duane, we got Madi a library card last year and started the same thing. And I TOO was obsessive about hardcovers until that whole "mortgage, buying diapers" thing came along, but then Amazon.com and the local used bookstores and I got very friendly. That, and the only really perk of book reviewing: free books!
ReplyDeleteY'know, 10th grade was also a pivotal year for me, the first time I ever read a book I became so engrossed in I HAD to finish in 1-2 days. We were assigned "Watership Down" over Easter Break, and I literally finished the whole thing in 1-2 days. That was the first time that ever happened!
ReplyDelete