Books

I love to read. The first book I actually remember reading was in the 3rd or 4th grade at Grant School in Mpls. The book was the telling of the story of King Arthur and His Knights Of The Round Table. It left such an impression on me that to this day I still seek out stories of King Arthur. My collection consist of about 58 books. Some old, some new. I have also added movies to the collection as well as postage stamps. While still in grade school I graduated to adult books. Then - the 50's - adult meant books that were written for adults versus books written for kids. My favorite hangout was the Sumner Branch Library on Emerson Ave and Olsen Highway. There were two librarians there who were just fabulous with kids. Unfortunately I do not remember their names. But I can still picture them in my mind. My first adult books were written by the same author: Mika Waltari. "The Egyptian", "The Roman", "The Etruscan", The Adventurer", and "The Wanderer". Whle I still continued to read books written for kids, I continued to read more and more adult books. Mom encouraged that. She loved to read - especially True Crime magazines. It was as a rsult of reading adult books that I fell in love with ancient history. "Gods, Graves and Scholars", by C.W. Ceram hooked me on aracheology and taught me that the old stories were in a lot of cases true. And that was my goal in life - to be an archeologist. Unfortunately, my Mom and Dad did not have the money nor was I ever encouraged by anyone to go to college. At that time I thought college was for the rich and exceptionally smart and I was neither. So college never happened. The Army did, then marriage and then a Daughter. Life goes on. Some dreams are just that - dreams. At the same time I was reading books on archeology and ancient history, I became hooked on Science Fiction. I can still remember the first book I read it. It was in the Central Avenune Branch of the Mpls Library. Just walk in the front door (the front desk was straight ahead), make an immediate right then another. On the wall facing Central Avenue was a rack of Science Fiction. I picked one that told the story of Earth's first contact with aliens. there were actually two books in the series. The first delt with an alien crashing on Earth and the second when Earth was invited to be a member of the Intergalatic United "Nations". The alien's name was Clonar. Anyway from then on I was hooked. Science Fiction and Ancient History - what a combination!. I read about two books a week and always have about 3 books on the library waiting list. I mean what would happen if I was snowed in with nothing to read? Horrors! But I am not the only one in my familty to read. My Sister and older Brother read a lot. As did my Mom. I say "did" because she has macular degeneration. My Daughter is an avid reader and is passing that along to her son. Last year for my birthday, my Daughter and Grandson gave me a t-shirt for birthday. It has a picture of an older man sitting in a chair reading to a yhoung man who is sitting on a stool in front of him. It is title: Real Men Read Books. My autobiography is titled: Bookreader. That sums it up.