Sarah

My first memory involving reading is of Carrie sitting with me at the top of the stairs as she teaches me to read.  If I remember correctly, she was teaching me because I would be going to kindergarten soon and I needed to know these things.  Probably the real reason had something to do with me pestering her and her needing someone to be the boss of someone for a minute or two.  Regardless, I learned to read which is ultimately a good thing.  Right?


Since then I've pretty much read anything I can find.  Then I went to college and majored in history, so reading became the only thing - it's always fun to walk into the bookstore and find that one of your classes requires 21 books, and, no, I'm not making that up.  I read literature, works of fiction, contemporary nonfiction, primary sources, interview transcripts, poetry, song lyrics, articles, photo essays, and textbooks; if it involved words, it was somewhere on one of my syllabi.  I read A LOT, but I was good with that because I love to read.  


What I came to understand, to really know, during that time is the power of words.  So many times the pen has been mightier than the sword, or at least what caused the sword to be raised and later what caused the sword to be laid to rest.  Words bring us together, pull us apart, start movements, define eras, humanize people we will never have the chance to meet; words are powerful and I take them seriously.  Of course, that involves laughing pretty seriously as well.  Humor works just as well as tears in most instances and I love a book that makes me laugh out loud.  I love books.  I love the people that write them.  And I love to tell people about the books I love.....and loathe.

5 Favorite Books

*To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

*The Color Purple
Alice Walker 

*Me Talk Pretty One Day
David Sedaris

*Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams

*The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupery



2 Not-So-Favorites
*The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

*The Pearl
John Steinbeck