by Vanessa Breedlove

Created on: January 21, 2009

"This is How I Become a Swash-Buckling Hero"

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. It can take you from sailing the seven seas with a pirate and his treasure, to sitting in the crowd watching a quidditch game and cheering, to running away from a murderer. Not only does it take you to a new world, it can make you a new person, maybe the person you secretly want to be in your imagination; a hero saving the damsel from the one-eyed monster, a young woman falling in love with Mr. Right. The "immediacy that a story can posses, as it connects so persuasively with human experience intrigues us and urges us to take a close look not only at ourselves but at others, at the terrible contrasts of this world[stories] are not a bad start for someone trying to find a good way to live this life".

As a child my Dad and I used to always read. I loved bringing home books to read for my book reports. I remember my first book report was on the book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson; my Dad bought it for me at the airport on our way to Spain. I don't remember a lot from childhood, but I remember going to the library once a week and picking out a book. I was always so excited to bring it home, because I knew my parents would come home from work to read it with me. I think my favorite part about reading with my parents was that we both read out loud, so I would read the characters I liked best parts and the narration, and my Mom or Dad would read the other characters. The coolest thing was that we gave all the characters different voices. It used to be so much fun reading.

When I was in middle school and high school, I really didn't like reading that much. In my first few years of high school I remember not reading any of the assigned books. After my parents divorced I hated reading. In around my junior year of high school I got really into reading. I stared reading the Harry Potter books when I went to my Nana's house in Tennessee for Thanksgiving. She was in the process of reading the second one and told me that I should read the first one and see if I liked it. Sure enough I liked them so much that I read the first three over that thanksgiving break. Then one day, I'm not really sure what possessed me to do this, but I went to the school library and talked to the librarian. I asked if she could suggest a captivating book that would catch my attention and keep it. The book she suggested was James Patterson's Cat and Mouse. It was an excellent book. So for about

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