Books fall open, I fall in.

I used to be a voracious reader.

Before I started kindergarten, the first book I learned to read was Hop on Pop. I actually think that at first I just memorized it, but used that information to teach myself how to read. Rarely was there a time when I was a kid that I didn’t have my nose in a book. I would read in every little spare moment. My mom used to ground me from reading, because it would escape into a book when I was supposed to be doing the dishes, cleaning my room or anything else, really.

I’m pretty sure that I was the only person who used our tiny little library at my Elementary School. It was full of cheesy Christian fiction from many years earlier, such as the Sugar Creek Gang. But I devoured every book in that room. And I still have a couple of them today that I never returned. Oops. Though I’m sure nobody missed them at all. I actually think that some of my earliest interest in missions came from these books. One that I still have is a short story compilation called Kidnapped and other Missionary Stories. I must have reread that one 15 times at least. And of course I read all the books that girls are supposed to read, like Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie, and Little Women. (Sidenote: a girl of about 10 came into the restaurant the other night with book 6 in the Anne series…and though she was with about 10 other people, she spent the entire time reading the book…reminded me of myself. )

This affinity for reading continued through high school. We didn’t really have a library at school, but my best friend always bought lots of books, and passed them on to me afterwards. This section of my reading history included books that I should be a bit ashamed of. I seem to remember reading a bunch of V.C. Andrews books and The Clan of the Cave Bear. My senior year of high school, I vividly remember my best friend and I always having a book to read during 2nd period and 5th period. So much so, that my teacher would often start the class by requesting that we put our books away before class started. This period also included some good books as well. A Seperate Peace, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter (probably the only person in my class who read that when it was assigned), The Chosen, and lots of historical fiction.

And in college, I know for a fact that my grades suffered because I read too much. Well, that and the fact that I worked a lot. But I would not necessarily read the books that I was supposed to be reading for class; I would read books for pleasure. The book that I read the most often was Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot. I read it at least 5 times the first semester that I had it. By far, that is the book that has impacted my life the most. I also loved to take advantage of our library. It had lots of books that hadn’t been checked out since the 1960′s, which I think was a tragedy. I frequented the missionary biography section the most. But also found G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, and one of my favorites, They Found the Secret. “This book presents the lives of twenty well-known and little-known Christians in search of the pattern which leads to the abundant life Jesus promised.”

When I moved to Honduras, there wasn’t a lot of choice in what I read. Pretty much any English books that I could find. Or books that my roommates mom sent her. This included lots of Christian Fiction, John Grisham, and of course rereading The Shadow of the Almighty a few times. And getting my butt kicked and encouraged by As Silver Refined: Learning to Embrace Life’s Disappointments.

I continued to read a lot and get loads of books at the libary over the next couple of years, the most memorable reads being The Pleasures of God and The Material World: A Global Family Portrait, a book that I checked out of the library all the time until my mom got it for me for Christmas a few years back.

But something has happened in the last couple of years. I have not read nearly as much as I used to. And I don’t know why. Perhaps it is because of the internet. Or perhaps I used up all my reading energy in the first 25 years of my life. I still read. Probably a lot more than some people. But not up to my normal reading habits. A couple of years back I decided that I was going to read each of the 100 best novels of the century. But I didn’t get very far. I read maybe four of them. Only 96 to go.

I did read quite a few books this week…including rereading the first two Harry Potter books. And so, my love for reading has been rekindled a bit. And I decided I have to read more. So, I went to Kari’s blog and wrote down many of her book recommendations, because I trust her taste. She’s a librarian. She can’t be wrong. And she leads a book club.