The power of reading

So far I have only talked about writing. How about reading? You can’t have one without the other. As a child, I remember seeing political books stacked on my father’s nightstand and the classics on my mother’s side. My mother taught me how to read before I even started kindergarten. She taught me that I could meet wonderful characters and escape to magnificent places on the pages of books. She introduced me to the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales. They were my favorite! She would sit with me and tell me about her favorite books: Arabian Nights, Papillon, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Count of Monte Cristo, Wuthering Heights, to name a few. I’m glad I took after my mother. I could never write a book about politics. My love of writing developed out of my love of reading. And I’m still honing my writing skills through the wonderful experience of reading.