Let me first just say that reading (gasp!) has always been one of my loves. I can still remember excitedly counting down the days until my sixth birthday, for then my mom let me have my own library card. I live within walking distance of a small, cozy library, and I fondly recall afternoons listlessly spent in the aisles there, surrounded by so many wonderful books. Those first few years I consumed nearly every adventure/mystery book I could find: "Robinson Crusoe", "Treasure Island", "Swiss Family Robinson", "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", "The Hardy Boys", and many Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes mysteries. As I grew older my interests became more varied, but I still consider these books the foundation of my childhood. Any boy who let those precious years slip by without dipping into at least one of these while sitting under a tree outside in the lazy days of summer, or in a warm kitchen munching on home baked apple pie while the winter frost chills the night air, just hasn't lived.
A lot of kids my age don't like to read, and I can't help but think that the reason is at least partly due to the required english classes in school. There is no surer way to strangle a kid's interest than to hand him a dusty book which he has no inclination to read, tell him that the author died several centuries ago, inform him that it is classic literature, and then assign so many pages to be read immediately. Of course the final nail in the coffin comes with the mentioning of such clinical words as theme, symbolism, and irony. Pure drudgery. And, if by some chance there are students who read on their own and don't need a teacher to make them open up a book, their freedom and curiosity is stifled by being forced to stick to a regimented list.
But enough of this ranting and raving. This page is supposed to be about what I enjoy reading. Why do I bother making something like this? It isn't to try and be pretentious (though I'll inevitably come off this way), I just want to be able to share the gems that I've discovered, and pass them along to those friends who know me and those strangers who must have must have made a wrong turn somewhere along this crooked cyberspace road to end up here (but please stick around awhile). Look, it doesn't matter if you read Shakespeare or Stephen King, and it certainly doesn't matter if you can analyze a novel like a crossword puzzle: just find what you like and read!
