George R.R. Martin (Author of The Game of Thrones)
I can't help myself. When I run across a good quote about books and reading, I have to share it. It's an obsession with me (a good one, I hope).
I cannot remember a time when I wasn't reading. As a young child, when I was supposed to practice the piano (an hour a day, no less), I would prop a Nancy Drew book on the piano and read it while playing a song, over and over, which I had memorized. I don't know if my mother knew or not. If so, she never said anything.
Nancy and I solved crimes and got heart palpitations over Ned Nickerson. We laughed with our good friends Bess and George. We literally grew up together. I was Jo in Little Women. If you remember, Jo was the writer. In The Scarlet Pimpernel, I was Sir Percy, rescuing French aristocrats from Madame Guillotine.
Today, I am still reading. I am a schoolmarm in the American West, teaching in a one room school. I am a special ops soldier in the Middle East, saving lives and squashing terrorism. I am a thousand people living a "thousand lives," all through reading.
This I know for sure: books hold treasures far beyond those of Aladdin's cave.
I'd forgotten that my first heart palpitations were for Ned Nickerson. I remember feeling guilty about that, since it was my grandmother who had given me the books, and I didn't think she would approve of such things.
ReplyDeleteI love that you were reading a book while practicing the piano. Now that's what I call multi-tasking.
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