Personal Narrative: My Hate Relationship With Reading

As a child, I had a love hate relationship with reading. I loved reading the books I picked out and I hated reading the books my mom picked out for me. My child self believed that my mom only wanted me to read the books that taught me a lesson. I only wanted to read the fun books where the cover had caught my eye at the local library. As an adult I now understand what my mom was trying to teach me about reading, however, as a child, I wanted to rebel and read what I wanted to. Now, fifteen years later, I now understand my mom wanted to show me there are more books in the world than the ones where the cover catches your eye. She taught me that sometimes you have to read outside your comfort zone to find true treasures in literature. I transitioned from Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew to Tamora Pierce’s Tortall and Circle of Magic series in childhood, to J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind as a teenager and adult. My mom’s lessons on reading helped me grow as a reader and begin a love affair with the written word, no matter the genre.
Growing up I was the child who wanted to played outside till the street lights came on and being honest, if I could manage it, I would have stayed out longer. My mom declared that if I wanted to play outside I had read a book of

her choosing first. Where I wanted to read quick and easy books, my mother wanted me to read Little Women, The Chronicles of Narnia, Hinds Feet on High Places and Ann of Green Gables. I fought my mom with tooth and nail, but in the end, my mom won. I read the books she wanted and I got to play outside. It took me years to understand what my mom was trying to teach me. She wanted me to explore the wonderful worlds that reading could offer me and that there was more to reading than quick and easy.
I stumbled upon the Nancy Drew series when I was twelve years old at the local library. I spied the fifty-six novels peeking out from a shelf in the very back of the library and wandered over to see what they were about. I saw beautiful covers proclaiming adventures about The Hidden Staircase (#2), The Clue of the Broken Locket (#11) and The Quest of the Missing Map (#19). I opened the first book in the series, The Secret of the Old Clock, and I was immediately hooked. Seeing blue and cream cover pages that hinted at each mystery within, amazing illustrations hidden within the pages and seeing a girl who could take care of herself taking no nonsense from anyone were exactly what I needed to draw me in. Through Nancy’s adventures I was able to explore a world where every day there was a new adventure to go one and a mystery to be solved. I was so enthralled by the series that I read the original fifty-six books in a week.
The love I had for the Nancy Drew series fostered in me a love of mysteries that still exists today.

From the Nancy Drew series I found the Tortall and Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce. The series had overlapping characters, magical worlds with never before seen powers, strong female lead characters and plenty of mystery and adventure for my pre-teen self. With every book I read, I was able to escape into a land of magic and mystery with a different turn of events every few pages. The love of mystery and adventure that Keene and Pierce instilled in me, led to reading authors such as Lois Gladys Leppard, Lois Duncan, Robert Ludlum, Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as an

adult.
The joy I found in reading as a child and pre-teen led to my discovering Harry Potter when I was twelve years old. The Harry Potter series had a major impact on my life as a reader, that still influences my reading to this day. At the time I was attending a private Christian school that was very anti Harry Potter. With the release of the second book the school held an assembly for every grade on why it was wrong to read the series. However, my mom, knowing my brother and I might be interested in the books, read the first book. She decided my brother and I could read the books, as long as she read them first and if she did not like a section she would paper-clip the pages together and tell us to skip those pages. Even skipping those few pages I was captivated with Harry’s new world.
The wizarding world of Harry Potter was so enthralling, I finished the first book in under a day. I was amazed with the vibrant stories and my imagination immediately let into action to picture everything happening in Harry’s world. I remember sitting on the playground at school, whispering to my best friend how I pictured Hogwarts and Harry’s latest adventure while watching for the yard duty making sure they didn’t overhear us discussing a banned book. Harry Potter was the first large book series I read that was considered both children’s and adult literature as both children and adult fell in love with the novels.
The Harry Potter series was the beginning of my transition from children’s literature to adult literature. Soon after finishing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban I began Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series for kids. After reading the first two books in less than a day my mom gave me the first book in the adult series. I remember her clearly telling me that as the kids versions were not challenging me I should try the adult series. I was immediately drawn into a story of the end times with action and adventure. I was able to imagine exactly what the post-apocalyptic world LaHaye was describing in his novels. I also remember thinking how much more involved the adult series was compared to the kids series. Whereas the kids series did not go into as much detail about the horrors of the rapture, the adult series laid it all out for the reader.
Throughout the years as my taste in literature has changed, I still reread the books that I fell in love with as a child. I still imagine what mystery Nancy will solve next or what Harry’s next adventure will be. I still find joy in the children’s literature that had so much influence over my imaginations. I will forever be thankful to my mom for opening my eyes and making me read books I thought I would have no interest in. By having me read books outside my comfort zone my eyes were opened to a whole new world of literature I would have never explored had I not sat down to read the books she gave me.