FAILED TO COMPLETE

Of all 63 reading challenges that I took on this year, the one is the one I’m saddest about not completed. Herewith, my January remarks:

I cannot remember a time when I didn’t read and didn’t love it.

My brother was born when I was 13 months old and my mother read to me to keep me occupied while she nursed him. I was reading when I entered kindergarten just before my fifth birthday, and in first grade I was called out of class once a week to read a story to my brother’s kindergarten class. (He was not impressed since he was already a reader himself.)

Dave & I spent many summer afternoons in the children’s section in the basement of the old library in St. Thomas. We could take only four books at a time and so we were there several times a week, replenishing our stock of entertainment. Dave favored Freddy the Pig books, although I could never get into them. I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder and Trixie Belden.

The Books That Made Me Love Reading Challenge, hosted by Emlyn Chand, allows me to re-read the books that made me fall in love with reading in the first place.

I’ll also reflect upon what made me love them the first time around and discuss how my impressions changed upon reading them again.

I haven’t determined yet which books I’ll read for this challenge (one per month is required), but I’m enjoying searching my memory and finding old friends.

January: These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder

February: Trixie Belden and the Red Trailer Mystery

March: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

April: A Place for Johnny Bill by Ruth Juline Bishop