brought to you by Jenni
Reading for me is a form of escapism. I started reading novels after living in Pakistan around 8 years of age. While living in Pakistan I had started to read Archie comics. Friends of the family had stacks of them all in the 'digest' format. Those were already the size of novels so it wasn't hard to move onto childrens novels. I don't remember or know what the first "book" as opposed to story, I read was. I do remember reading Jane Eyre at age 10 tho. A friend of mine had read it and was lending it to people so I read it too. I also read most of the Anne of Green Gable's series before I was 13. My granny used to buy them for me.
Mum used to have to call me to dinner quite loudly when I was in the middle of reading. As the oldest of 4 you soon start to develop defence mechanisms to deal with the noise of younger siblings and when I was reading I was able to ignore sound with relative ease. It used to bug Sis I remember as she would ask me questions and I'd reply yes or no and then after a few moments I'd be like... what did you say? If I replied at all.
I still read to escape. For me reading is a form of stress relief as I can get a break from my everyday life. That is why I think I like to read fantasy. It is soo seperate from my world. I don't just read fantasy. It just depends what is on hand. I recently when through a whole spate of Marion Keyes books as another teacher had a bag of them in her car and she lent them to me. They are nice and fluffy with happy endings. I like that! She also lent me a couple of Ben Elton books which were good, but not as good for relaxing as they have a whole dark seedy side.
Beau's Mum lent me a pretty great book the other week which I have been meaning to mention for a while. It is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It's a story told from the point of a boy who maybe has Aspergers? It's not made clear in the book what exactly he has although he goes to a special school. The book is interesting because it is all told from his view, and his view is not the view that you or I would have in his place. He is very emotionally distanced from others and it goes into how confusing he finds that and also how difficult it has been for his parents to have him as their child. Although again all you know about how his parents take it is given by his reports of incidents that have happened in his past and what he says happens during the story. One part that I found particularly fascinating was a bit about how he would have Black Days whenever he saw 4 yellow cars in a row on the way to school. On those days he would just sit in the corner and not talk to anyone or do anything. On Super Days, days where he saw 4 Red cars in a row he would be very pleasant and more outgoing. He had noticed that environmental factors influenced "normal" peoples behaviour e.g. if the weather is all grey and rainy an office worker ( who it doesn't really effect) might get all grumpy for no other reason. So he decided that rather than have his behaviour dictated by the weather he would use car colour! Just a cool book.