When I was a kid, in elementary school, I had a really hard time learning to read and because of that, I HATED reading.  I got some extra reading comprehension help, worked on reading out loud, (don’t all kids just love reading out loud) worked on my spelling and eventually I could read enough to “get by.”  (My spelling?  Let’s not even talk about that.  To this day it still sucks.  Thank the Lord above for creating a human with the ability to develop spell check and auto correct.)  Back to the story:  My Mom was amazing!  She sat at the kitchen table with me each night whiling I struggled to get all my homework done.  She never once made me feel like I was lacking and told me to just keep working at it.  But of course I thought I was stupid and I would never get it.   My Mom would say, “Janis, When you get older you will see there are some very stupid people in the world and you are not one of them.”  Mom, You were so damn right!!!

As I got into high school, my reading ability was okay but I still absolutely HATED to read.  I wrote five book reports my entire high school career.  I would hand them in each year and pray my English teacher from the year before didn’t tell my current one I already did a report on that book.  College was, well you know, academic reading.  Not fun, not interesting but I read what I needed to read, wrote the reports I needed to write just to get the hell out of there.

Spring forward about 10 years and my daughter was born.  Me, the person who hated to read bought every Doctor Seuss book I could find and read to my infant daughter every night.  I will say I was not looking to venture out of the Seuss realm but my dear little sister keep bugging me with those books called Twilight.  (Stop rolling your eyes.  I know what you’re thinking so just stop.)  She said, “you’ll love them … they’re right up your alley … go check them out.”  I completely ignored her until finally deciding to just read the damn book to shut her up.  Boom …. It was like a light bulb went on.  I absolutely loved the first book and couldn’t wait to get the others so I could see how the story ended.  When I was done, my sister started in on my again and said, “okay, I’ve got another book for you to read but I’ll warn you there are a lot of them in this series.”  JD Robb’s In Death series was my next adventure and to this day I wait, not very patiently, for the next book to be released.

It took me a long time to Find the Joy in Reading but eventually I did.  Fourteen years since my daughters birth and I’m proud to say I am well over 100 books a year reader.  I’ve come a long way from my five books over my four years of high school.  For me reading is now a way to relieve stress and to get away from reality for just a little while by falling into a world some very amazing author created.  So if you’re like I was and you hate reading, don’t give up on it.  Keep looking for that one book that keeps your attention and drags you back for more.  It’s out there and all you have to do is find it.

Keep Reading,

Janis