“Book Love” by Jenny Kaczorowski
It began innocently enough: a brand new copy of Goodnight Moon and parents patient enough to read it to me night after night after night. But Goodnight Moon was the gateway drug for many of my generation, and I soon turned to more hard-core reads, such as Pickle-Chiffon Pie and Little Rabbit’s Loose Tooth.
In elementary school, our librarian fed us a steady supply of Shel Silverstein and Beverly Cleary. Once a year R.I.F. spread shiny new paperbacks on the school library tables and fed my addiction with one free book. Many a child joined the leagues of reading addicts after those visits. I was in love — obsessed, even. Libraries, bookstores, Scholastic fliers — I couldn’t get enough.
In middle school, melodrama ruled the day, usually with a good dose of paranormal phenomena thrown in. Christopher Pike and Lois Duncan kept me company every evening. My school work began to suffer. I neglected my friends, my family. I begged for one more chapter, one more paragraph whenever the outside world demanded my attention.
By high school I had turned to stealing books from my parents’ shelves. I smuggled battered Harlequins, travelogues, and classics to school, getting my fix between every class. Until I earned my drivers’ license. Then any book in the public library was fair game.
In college I majored in English, and learned to hide my addiction. I took to carrying classics and slim volumes of poetry to literature classes filled with snobby students who looked down on genre fiction and, like me, pretended they did not read themselves to sleep each night with a good novel.
I’ve gone through other phases: young adult lit in grad school, mysteries after that. I found others who share my addiction. I no longer feel shame when I crack open a paperback in public and smell the fresh paper, admire the shiny cover, delve into each seductive story, because I now know that I am not alone.
For most of us, an addiction to reading is not picky. Suspense, historicals, science fiction, classics, contemporary literature — we’ll read it all. In the end, even cereal boxes and shampoo bottles are appealing if there’s nothing else. Because after a lifetime of addiction, a junkie can always find the next fix.
Oh. My. Word. I love Goodnight Moon, and I still have multiple Shell Silverstein books sitting on my floor where anyone can reach them easily. Have you read Click, Clack, Moo – Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin? I had totally forgotten about Cleary, Pike and Duncan until I read those names here. And? The best? I’ve just recently started admitting to people how I used to sneak into my mom’s room and “borrow” Harlequins. LOL. I’m still not sure if she knows I did that. She used to have huge brown paper bags full of them, and I’d dig down to the bottom so the titles on top wouldn’t change. I’ve gotten so addicted to reading, that I’ve even started branching out into history and non-fiction. The cereal boxes, shampoo bottles and any informational flyer sitting in reach at the doctor’s office are the last bet, but they will do in a pinch. I’m off to check the R.I.F site.
i have to say that i mostly read literary fiction which focuses on coming of age but when King comes out with something new, i’m there, willing to pay for the hardback. i think that’s the only time i will buy a book brand new.
i do agree though, junkies will read whatever they get their hungry little hands on. My husband and i go to the Goodwill and i read every title. Often, i leave with five to ten books cradled in my arms like a baby- wee and precious. And i’ll read anywhere, anytime. i can walk and read, cook and read, eat and read.
And i actually have read the backs of shampoo bottles as well as toothpaste tubes and lotions.
i read some christopher pike in middle school too — did you ever read sweet valley high? good heavens, i read so many of those books!
LOL, Mizzz_K. It’s amazing how when we get around to revealing our shameful secrets, so many of those we tell have exactly the same ones! And thanks for checking out the RIF site. It made such a difference in my life, and in the lives of so many other children. I can’t believe the so-called “education president” cut funding to it.
C, I do that same thing! I can’t go to a bookstore without stocking up. And I, too, have learned to read and do most anything else. I used to read at every stoplight on the way home from the library. (This is why I finally broke down and bought my iPod and a subscription to Audible.com!)
Emily, I loved Sweet Valley High! Only, it made me feel so sad because I didn’t have a twin sister. I wanted a twin so badly!
Or just anything at all. I once almost lost a job in college painting a couple of rooms because I couldn’t stop reading the old newspapers spread across the floor as drop-cloth.
They were from a decade earlier, and I couldn’t resist reading about events where I knew the outcomes 🙂
We’ve read at any opportunity. I recall all those authors but I also loved reading the Encyclopedia Brown books as well. Anything was fair game when it came to reading, even the grocery store.
I’m going to check out RIF site now.
Hello, My name is Z, and I am a book addict as well! I have been addicted since kindergarten when I learned to read, and have developed a nearly book-a-day habit in the years since then. I just purchased two new books from my local dealer, Barnes&Noble, this afternoon and couldn’t even wait to get home to crack one open, leaving my fellow subway riders staring at the unusual sight of someone *reading a novel*
😉
I wonder how many addicts Good Night Moon has created over the years? I have it memorized, still reading almost daily to my 2 year old daughter. I’m just now beginning to realize the road I’ve put her on. But it’s too late for her, she’s already hooked on getting her nightly fix of stories.
My 2 older kids started on Good Night Moon too, and now they’re both voracious readers. What have I done? Would it have turned out differently for them if I’d started with Elmo’s ABCs or A Bear Called Paddington?
In the great green room
There was a telephone
And a red ballon
And a picture of-
The cow jumping over the moon
Michael, that’s hilarious! Thing is, I know I would have had the same problem.
Dru, we loved Encyclopedia Brown, too! I had totally forgotten about him! And thanks for checking out RIF. I’m so angry that it’s being taken away from children who need books so desperately.
LOL, Z! I was wondering if someone would being a comment that way. 😀 And “dealer” is the perfect name for Barnes and Noble. As for the people who aren’t reading on the subway, they are so missing out!
You’ve done it now, Adam! Their lives will never be the same as if they’d never learned to love reading. The horror of it. Now they’ll be forced to have better writing skills, grammar, and background knowledge. The things parents do to their kids! And, yes, I do have to wonder if other books would have had such an impact. 😉
Lois Duncan…good stuff.
You reminded me.