It’s confession time. As embarrassing as this is for a librarian to admit, there was a time in my childhood when I wasn’t a reader. Don’t get me wrong, I would read when the mood struck. But the mood didn’t strike all that often, and when given the choice between reading a book or any other activity, I would almost always pick the other activity.
Then one Christmas my grandmother gave me the Anne of Green Gables series, and that is when everything changed. Although the box set only had the first three books, I was hooked. Anne Shirley was the first literary character to come to life for me. To me she wasn’t just words on a page, she was a living, breathing person I could admire and identify with. She hated her red hair, just like me. She imagined all sorts of stories and acted them out with her friends, just like me. She was extremely loyal and extremely unforgiving… just like me.
I spent my Christmas break tearing through those books. I explored Avonlea and got to know the people who lived there. I laughed with Anne and cried with her. I felt her anger at Gilbert Blythe and her sorrow when Matthew died. When I was finished it occurred to me that maybe there were other books and other worlds I could get lost in — just like I had gotten lost in Anne’s world. And that was the start of my reading odyssey, an adventure that has gone on for nearly twenty years. I’ve made many stops along the way, but I will never forget how it all began.
To remember the passion for reading my grandmother gave me one Christmas, I always take the opportunity to introduce family and friends to books and authors they normally would not try. While I know that I’ll probably never create the same feeling in them that I felt the day I read the first few pages of Anne of Green Gables, giving the gift of reading is something I look forward to every year. And who knows? This year’s Christmas gift might be the book that they talk about for years to come.
What about you? What were some of the best books or authors you were introduced to on Christmas morning?
Reading is a beautiful gift. I brought a book to the hospital to read to my baby the first time I gave birth. I was too drugged up though. Nevertheless, the precedent was set. I was a born reader who wasn’t given books as a child, so I swore my own children would always have plenty right from the start.:wink:
by Kimber An December 16th, 2006 at 8:54 amThank you for bringing back such wonderful memories of my first “favorite” book. I was 8 when my mom gave me Anne of Green Gables. Like you it was the book that opened my eyes to reading and I’ve never looked back.
by Tara Marie December 16th, 2006 at 11:18 amEvery time we went to my grandparents’ house for Christmas, there would be a new Nancy Drew book waiting for me on the pillow of my bed in the guest room. You can imagine how fast I tore up those stairs each year! I still have every one of them.:smile:
by Allie December 16th, 2006 at 11:24 amI feel so jealous!
Books have never been the gift of choice in my family (although I’ve certainly given them). I just end up finding them on my own and then talking them up to everyone I know.
I’ve never read the Anne of Green Gables series, but I LOVED the Sullivan Entertainment movies. And I must confess, I’ve never read a Nancy Drew… But I have plenty of my own favorites.
by Alyssa Goodnight December 16th, 2006 at 6:38 pmThe Anne books are some of my favorite books. I re-read the first five every year. I got the first one for Christmas one year, and it was one of my favorite “Christmas” books.
My mom always got me a book for Xmas. Other favorites were: A Little Princess, The Thief of Always, and The Mists of Avalon.
by Diana December 16th, 2006 at 10:08 pmReading on Christmas day wasn’t ever an option in my house, but I’m totally with you re Anne Of Green Gables. L.M Montgomery remains one of my fave ever authors to this day, just for introducing me to the irrepressible, freckled, and carrot-topped Anne Shirley.
Heidi, Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, (and other Frances Hodgeson Burnett books) and the Just William stories, are amongst the first books that I ever read, and loved to death.
Ahhh… the memories…
by Karen Scott December 17th, 2006 at 6:46 amI also love the Anne of Green Gables series although for some reason I did not approach them until my 20s. I have to confess, however, that for me she got kind of boring after she married Gilbert, but maybe that’s because the point of view changed in the books. When I was a kid I was hooked on the Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary. When I was growing up books did not tend to be given as presents and most of what I read came from the library. Now I think I’m trying to make up for that as I feel that a great deal of my salary (as a librarian by the way) goes into books. People have asked me why I bother to buy books and then I have to explain about small budgets and how we can’t order everything I want to read, etc.
by Sam December 17th, 2006 at 10:22 amSam , I LOVED Ramona Quimby when I was younger!!
by Karen Scott December 17th, 2006 at 11:22 amI always give my grandkids books for Christmas or a gift card to a book store. They love it. Even the teenage boys. Reading is becoming a lost art, and its perdicted that in forty years or so, people won’t read like they do now. They won’t have too, because of technology. I find that very sad. I love the smell of printed pages, the feel of a book in my hand, and the satisfaction of falling in love characters as they travel to that happily ever after.
by Lee December 17th, 2006 at 12:07 pmI got book 1-5 in the babysitters club series when I was younger, and that was that for me. that series STILL creates a fuzzy feeling in my belly. I went from the babysitters club to everything i could get my hands on.
by Kim December 17th, 2006 at 12:45 pmI remember devouring Nancy Drew, Babysitters Club, Ramona Quimby, and any Judy Blume book I could get my hands on.
But on one particular christmas, I received little women in my stocking.
And although I was a voracious reader prior to this one memorable holiday,
It became a passion after the first fifty pages of this one book.
What wonderful memories lie between the worn covers of a well read book.
ML
by Milan Loka December 17th, 2006 at 11:24 pmReading what an amazing thing to do. Love to read that’s where most people can find me is in my room reading a book. I get so lost in my reading can’t hear anybody calling me and I know it drives them up the wall. But cant’help it it’s like time travel your in whole other world when reading. Just you and the book nothing else in the world matters. Thats what I love about reading its an adventure of a lifetime.:grin:
by Kimberly December 18th, 2006 at 8:13 pmI hardly ever got books for Christmas, but one year my aunt gave me a huge box of Harlequin books. I was 10. That was my introduction to “real” romances. *sigh* Happy memory.
by Kaitlin December 18th, 2006 at 8:45 pm