I don't remember when I first learned to read, but my mother has told me about a time during kindergarten when I constantly wanted to read stories to everyone around me. She made it sound as if I was very enthusiastic about reading. It makes me smile to hear her say that, because I'm still very enthusiastic about it. Not for the same reasons as when I was a child, I'm sure. When I was young, I think I had a hard time learning how to read because my premature birth affected my speaking and--the doctors thought--my comprehension. When I finally learned how to read on my own, I'm sure I was eager to share words with other people through reading them out loud and writing them.
Throughout elementary school, I don't remember if I went to the library often, but I do remember reading any book that was given to me. I enjoyed reading books a lot. I think that was the period of time in which I was subscribed to a reading list(?) for The Boxcar Children and Goosebumps. After reading many of The Boxcar Children books (I unsubscribed after about 20 or 30), I found myself reading The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books from the local library. The mystery genre was definitely my favorite genre at the time. Though I've only read a few books from each of those mystery series, they imparted a sense of adventure in me. I wanted to be able to travel to different places and discover amazing things, find clues and solve problems, just like the main characters did. Mystery books led me to fantasy adventure books.
During middle school, Lloyd Alexander's fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain made me want to read more of his works. So far, I've read about half of his books. All of his works have such memorable characters that one would love to be friends with. I also discovered Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events during that time and fell in love with the voice of the narrator. Japanese comics, called manga, also popped into my life. The visuals and stories drew me in instantly. Now these graphic novels have become a major part of my little library.
During middle school, Lloyd Alexander's fantasy series The Chronicles of Prydain made me want to read more of his works. So far, I've read about half of his books. All of his works have such memorable characters that one would love to be friends with. I also discovered Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events during that time and fell in love with the voice of the narrator. Japanese comics, called manga, also popped into my life. The visuals and stories drew me in instantly. Now these graphic novels have become a major part of my little library.
Though I dabbled in mystery, my high school years were mostly filled with books of fantasy, and yaoi and shonenai manga, which consist of stories about homosexual male couples. For some reason, reading about gay male couples really interests me. While fantasy novels let me explore other worlds, which inspired me to write my own worlds. One day, I came across The Wizard of Earthsea at the local library. I loved the beautiful language used by Ursula K. Le Guin, however, I did not take an interest in reading The Tombs of Atuan, the sequel to The Wizard of Earthsea. There was a phase during high school in which I read adult fantasy books. I guess romance and battles really interested me at that time, since that's what adult fantasy novels tend to have in them. They were also bulkier than juvenile and young adult fiction and made me look smarter, not that I really cared about that. Near the end of my high school career, I started to look toward more realistic fiction, as my life was becoming a bit scarier, you could say.
My interest in yaoi and shonenai manga has caused me to venture into the realm of LGBT fiction. It really opens up my mind to the world around me. One book that really affected my views of humans as a whole is David Levithan's Love is the Higher Law, a novel about three teens who live in New York and their response to the events after 9/11. This story really touched my heart. I've grown into an adult (I guess you could say that I'm still a young adult according to some of the readings) that very much loves reading and writing young adult literature. Books help me learn so many things I don't think I could have learned as I walked my path in life, or probably would have learned way later in my life. I would love to share my mind, as my favorite authors have, to those who are willing to read my work. I would love to share my enthusiasm.
