It started out as an assignment and turned into a love affair. My first crush was “The Prince of Tides,” assigned by my beloved psychology teacher and soccer coach in high school. It’s so incredible to be exposed to something you were never prepared for that has a significant impact on your life. I’m convinced it was Mr. Melbach with his erratic behavior and unique way of teaching and coaching that influenced me to take up psychology in college, all propelled by this one reading assignment.
My parents were not readers and we were not encouraged to read outside of school. Not that they didn’t want us to read, it just wasn’t something our family did much of. The only reading I witnessed in our house was the Sunday Denver Post, and with that my dad gave me the color print comics. That was interesting to my young heart and I would go on to read “Garfield” and “Archie” comic books for road trips, but nothing beyond a book with pictures on every page. So, when I opened my first “real” book, I didn’t have high hopes or expectations. What a wonderful surprise it was to create a mental image of the characters and events, and how they elicited emotion in me as much as a movie could. There’s this thing with timing where, when you are mentally and emotionally ready for something, it hits you just right, like a catalyst. And maybe “The Prince of Tides” wasn’t so much of a catalyst as was Mr. Melbach. The book just seems to be the trigger memory that marks that time in my life when reading became significant.
“Stones from the River” by Ursula Hegi was a novel that really felt like something special, as it was one of the first times I didn’t want to put the book down. When I wasn’t reading this book, I was thinking about it—about the characters and ideas; I became preoccupied with it. It was also when I realized that I was retaining more historical information than I had in high school history classes. Why are we not reading more historical fiction in school? Rarely do dates and locations bind us to the historical significance of events as do faces and experiences of those who lived before us. I would have been a much better student had our educational curriculum included history told as a story—with emotion and experiences to remember those significant events by.
My true love affair developed when I joined the Bailey MOPS group, which had a few simple rules: nothing fancy and nothing too long. Some of us were decent readers, while others were new and intimidated by thick bindings. This was a great opportunity for me to read books I would probably never select, and the best way for me to set an example for my children to become well-read. One of our first selections was “The Diary of Mattie Spencer,” written by Colorado’s own Sandra Dallas. This was a book that stunned me into tears. Initially I had no interest in reading about soddies and prairie life, and yet the power of timing stepped in. Mattie’s story, which is conveyed through her journal, is of a woman’ s harsh reality of love and loss. While reading about Mattie’s life, I was pregnant with my second child and had just lost my dad. I was extremely emotional and on the brink of tears daily. Just reminiscing about this book and that time of my life chokes me up. What an interesting way to chronicle and reflect on life… by the books we read.
That’s the real magic of well-written books, in that they change you. They change the way you think, evoke you to think and make you feel things you weren’t prepared for—some good and some not. I’ve cried many times when a character dies, and laughed out loud because of an author’s quick wit. I’ve read other peoples stories and come to discover something about myself in the process. This truly has been a sweet love affair and I am thankful for the ethereal experience that wonderful authors provide readers with their creative, funny and even dark imaginations.
“I’ve cried many times when a character dies, and laughed out loud because of an author’s quick wit.”
