If you haven't read the best ones yet, write them. Are many of you, here, authors and novelists? I've had favorite authors. They write historical fiction, crime, law and justice. I also enjoy tales and stories of old, and the classics such as Aesop's. I love the fascinating and witty ancient tales so much that my children and I share a read or two. Or three for hours on some days. They live in our minds as if they are alive. After an amazingly good read, I usually think that I wish I wrote something like that incredible novel. If a novel were that bad, I wouldn't count on moving on to chapter two. I started with the classics by authors we wouldn't have heard about. Since our love for books, writing has become our means of creative expression. Our children, grandchildren and pupils will see and catch on with the same path they see us love doing. My mother had influence on me with my love for books and writing. And I'm passing it on to my children and grandchildren.
I studied 19th-century literature for my degree and I still read more novels from that period than any other. I have a mental, rather than physical, list of books that I "should have read" though I will probably never read all of them. These days, I read little but classics, although I can be sidetracked (quite easily) by a well-written history book, particularly anything on ancient kingdoms or empires. As for the books I have written, I am only too aware of my shortcomings and try to remain within set parameters of what I can achieve. I will never be Dostoevsky, Dickens, Tolstoy, Proust, Gogol or Eliot. All I can do is be myself and hope that a few people are happy with that.
Probably my mother, that and the fact that I was in high school before we got a television, and I lived in the country, a mile and a half from a town of only a couple of hundred people.
I have no idea where my love for reading and writing came from - it was just there. I do know that when I read it became real to me in my mind. I also know that at some point in time I began to write down thoughts and ideas that came to me. I would always find myself writing poetry mostly. One of my poems is out there somewhere in a big volume of poems. I didn't keep that poem though and I don't even remember the context of it. I also made my own greeting cards since I didn't have the money to money one or transportation to get to the store even. I did write a very saucy scene which I still have that. That was inspired by all the romance novels that I read. Yum, yum.
I don't know where my love for reading and writing came from. No one in my immediate family did either. I do know that it was a highlight in elementary school to hear the teacher reading maybe that's where it began - Those children's books. I love to read aloud to anyone that would listen. I was asked several times to read passages from the Bible both in Sunday School and church. I think I started writing down just my thoughts to improve my penmanship and it took off from there with short stories and poetry. Writing as a career was like being an artist (painter)- not thought of as a wise path to take in life back then.
I think it was the fourth grade, during one home room period or in the English class, the whole class was marched to the library and told to check out a book, something that was interesting to each of us. Everyone checked out a book but me. Back in class the teacher said everyone was to read their book, write a paper on it, telling what it was about, why we liked the book or didn't like it, one full page. My penmanship was okay but i didn't express myself very well and I didn't check out a book. When everyone turned their paper in the following week, I didn't have one to turn in. My teacher asked me why I had not checked out a book and I told her i didn't know what to check out. The only thing thing I had ever read was school books and the bible. She made me stay after school and she took me to the the library, picked out four books for me, two pirate books, one book about the Canadian Yukon country, and a horse book. She told me to read the books and present a paper on each, a full page for each book. I think she gave me two weeks. I had never read anything i didn't have to read, but i read those four and it was a chore, i sat up nights and read by the light of a kerosene lamp, until my dad would start calling at me to put out the light and go to bed. I actually liked the books, all four of them, and that me to reading for pleasure.
I learned to read when I was still pretty small. I remember that my mom would buy the children's stories called "Little Golden Books", and I had a whole set of them. My favorite was always, "The Pokey Little Puppy"; but I also liked most of the rest of them. Since my mom would read them to me, she would also help me learn to read the words, and then I was able to read my little books anytime that I wanted to. From there, I progressed to Roy Rogers (and Trigger) comic books, and eventually was reading regular books for enjoyment. Since I loved horses, one of the first series of books that I read was the "Black Stallion" series and the "Island Stallion" series by Walter Farley. I was an only child, my parents both worked (although I was with my mom all of the time, we had a small family grocery), so I learned to keep myself entertained from an early age. Reading was one of my favorite things, and it still is. We did not have a television set until I was a teenager; so I never developed the habit of watching TV when I was little, and still only watch now and then , when there is something that I want to learn more about.
My dad used to go to our public library every Saturday morning. He would bring home books on explorers, ancient ruins and others. Many of these had photos of ruins located in jungles and deserts. These fascinated me. One Saturday morning dad took me with him to the library and got me my own card. From then on, I was hooked. I sampled everything from fiction to history, crime, religion, technical manuals, humor, etc. All through school I struggled, always on the verge of being made to repeat a grade. Once I learned basic math, the adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplication tables, I saw no reason for more. English was fine, as far as reading. It's when we were required to diagram sentences that I failed miserably. While reading, I paid attention to how words were spelled and used in sentences. Just couldn't understand who the h**l would diagram all their sentences. History was a total bore as it was taught in the 1940's and 1950's. We had to memorize long lists of names, dates, places and events. Details were taught in a most boring manner. Then, in the early 1950's certain magazines began to appear on our news stands. "Guns and Ammo", "Gun World", "Shooting Times", to name a few. Being a "gun nut", thanks to my dad, I bought every issue I could afford. Within the pages of these magazines, I found articles on antique firearms and in turn, history told in a most interesting way. And "Outdoor Life", "Field and Stream", "Sports Afield" and like magazines taught me biology and natural history. So, that library card got me through school right on schedule.
I guess I owe my obsession with literature, especially fan-fiction and fantasy literature to my father, who was a HUGE fan of Asiimov's works, and he showed them to me. In fact, there were among the first 'real' books I've read.
It amazes me that I still remember the very first book I borrowed from our library. "Riders of The Rio Grande" by Glenn Balch. It's funny how, as we age we remember so much from our past, but can't remember yesterday. Just this morning it took me 1/2 hour to find my pants. I finally found them in a basket of clothes I washed yesterday but had not put away yet.
I had an unhappy childhood and reading was a way for me to get to happier places. Beings a naturally curious person I have always been looking for more, more adventures even if they were all in my mind. More of what could be if you could see it in your minds eye. I love to ready history, syfy, love stories, mysteries, I just love to read.
I am not actually a serious reader like some who buy pocketbooks for their company until bedtime. I was raised on television and I enjoy watching tv than reading. But don't get me wrong, I was studious when I was a student. I would always read books and do my homework. In fact, I got an award as best in deportment. When I got a job, I had learned to read books but not stories, more on technical books that I would need in doing my work. And with writing, I am not that creative since my main line is writing office methods and procedures.
Ike, when you were reading the Field and Stream, and other similar magazines, did you ever read anything by Patrick McManus ? He wrote articles in the hunting and fishing magazines for many years, and then he started doing well enough selling his own books that he was able to just write books. Pat grew up in the same little Idaho town where I grew up, so when he told his hunting and camping stories, most of the places that he talked about were familiar to me. He had an awesome sense of humor and a great way of telling a story. If you have never read anything by Pat McManus; I am sure that you would enjoy reading his books.
Yes, I've read and re-read and even owned some of his books. His stories were very enjoyable to read. I've been to Idaho. It's a beautiful part of the USA.
I remember being really good at english as early as primary school. I was reading well before my peers and grammar came easily to me. By the age of 10 I was reading complicated poetry which I found in my grandmother's library. I didn't understand it but I was fascinated by it and tried to copy it. My love of reading and in particular writing has never left me and I can't imagine being without it. I have known people who never learned to read and write. How must that be for them? We need this skill every day of our lives whether it be reading a label or a book.