Posted in 52 Books in 52 Weeks 2009

I began reading at age 3 and have read more or less constantly ever since.  At times this was a discipline issue.  My parents would check on me at night to try to catch me reading under my covers with a flashlight.  My mom would take me to the library, where I would get a stack of books and then sit there all day reading until she would yell at me to go outside and play.  Then I would conceal the book from her on my way outside or down to the basement so I could continue reading out of her sight.  At times, they objected to what I was reading on top of the sheer number of hours I spent reading.  I remember being very young, five or six maybe, and picking up my mother's copy of Love Story.  She had a fit when she came into the room and saw me reading it! (I still have never read that book - I think I am old enough now, I'll have to get it from the library!)

I also remember trying to read Romeo and Juliet at about the same age.  I couldn't really understand it and was about to give up when one of my parents told me not to read it, although that may have been more due to the fact that I had dug it out of a box in the basement that I probably didn't have permission to be in. 

And I remember hiding a book that was really popular in my school called Go Ask Alice that was all about how this girl had become a druggie.  Unfortunately, I never found out what happened to her because one of my sisters snitched on me and I was forbidden from reading it.  They didn't go for the argument that it would teach me not to do that by letting me see her descent into the hellish world of drug addiction.  I guess they were right since I am not a drug addict.  In fact, I hate taking Tylenol and even birth ten and eleven pound babies without drugs!

Life has come full circle.  I used to hide books I was reading from my parents, and now I hide them from my children.

Recently my daughters and I watched The Princess Diaries 1 and 2 again.  They really are good movies and I have no problem with my children seeing them.  I noticed that they were based on a book. so I went to get it out from the library and noticed that there was a whole series. (Incidentally, why is all children's/young adult publishing now series?  Are authors that lazy?) I started reading the second book first and realized on page one that my daughters were not going to be reading these books!  They changed a lot in the movies.  Basically we have the idea that an American teenager finds out that she is a princess and heir to the throne of Genovia.  The implementation of this idea is quite different.

I am now almost done the second one (I would already be done except for the hiding thing!) and don't know if I will read any more.  They really are not that great or well-written.  I would rather watch the movies.  And that is a very hard thing for a book lover for me to admit!