I think all writers were readers first. That may seem obvious at first blush, but there is a sensual connection to reading a book that you get through no other experience.
The first book I can ever remember reading by myself was called When We Were Very Young, by A. A. Milne. When my daughter was born, a friend presented her with her very first book. It was the same book!
Not to take anything away from Kindle or Nook, but there is something very satisfying about turning the pages and seeing the words or pictures appear. My three-year-old granddaughter just read me a book from her own imagination as she flipped through a coloring book. The story didn't even match the pictures. Turning the pages was what was important. My oldest granddaughter, aged nine, is writing her own novel, but that's a story for different time.
The point is, books provide escape, entertainment, and excitement. There is no place you cannot go with the help of a book. Coming around the corner, in almost any room of my house, my eye will fall on some book I haven't opened in a while. Like running into an old friend in the grocery store, it is both a familiar and an exciting treat to rediscover the remembered pleasure.
My life is decorated by the thousands of books I've read from Little House on the Prairie and Ann of Green Gables including obscure fiction and nonfiction. I just stumbled on Life in a Medieval Castle nestled next to The Cowboy Life and lost my way for about an hour.
I love movies and television, but may there always be someplace where books wait for us on a shelf until we can spare a moment or two to create our own pictures from the words on the page.
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