The Power of a Good Book – Daily Quote

/ JoHawkTheWriter

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Before Harry Potter, my childhood included a vast array of books, and I devoured each one I opened. My mother insisted on mandatory trips to the library during school breaks. I eagerly checked out the maximum they allowed. A few days later, I would beg her for another trip, which elicited groans from my siblings. To make my reading material last longer, I added my excess to their weekly allotment of one easy read and snatched them back as we headed to the car.

I remember impressive titles like Where the Wild Things Are, Watership Down, A Wrinkle in Time, Artemis Fowl, The Polar Express, and The Neverending Story. I also read every entry on the school’s summer reading list and borrowed the recommendations from the next grade level to feed my habit. During my freshman year in high school, I encountered a tale that changed everything. The Once and Future King by T. H. White altered my reading trajectory. The worlds of science fiction and fantasy fit. Huge tomes and epic series guaranteed I would never run short of magnificent work, favorite characters, and escape.

Tolkien, Asimov, Huxley, Well, and Bradbury became household names. Robert Jordan ensured countless hours of full immersion into a Wheel of Time and created a gaping void of sadness when he passed. The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Dune, Fahrenheit 451, and The Mists Of Avalon can transport me to the exact place where I first read them. They whispered to me, woke my sleeping muse, and ignited a fire. Those authors stand behind me, taunting me, they dare me to defy the undeniable urge, they challenge me to write the stories living in my imagination.

What book altered your reading?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

 

15 thoughts on “The Power of a Good Book – Daily Quote”

  3. When I was 15, home with the flu, my mother brought me a book to read from the supermarket: Lord Foul’s Bane by Stephen Donaldson. That book set in motion a lifetime of reading. I picked it up recently to see what I thought. I wasn’t impressed and decided not to read it. I’m eternally grateful that it spoke to 15 y.o. me. Not sure who I would be if I never got that book.

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    • Isn’t it interesting how books can be life-changing and then somehow they change? I swear it’s magic. 😊 As a rule, I don’t re-read books, I would rather remember them, before I knew the ending. I am glad that book found you at the right time., Jeff

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  4. The Once and Future King was an important story for me. As was Dune. The Hobbit as well. My reading of The Chronicles of Narnia was split. It was read to me when I was a child, and then later I read the rest of the series. But I think maybe reading of substance started with A Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was the first novel I read three times (I’ve only done that with two other stories), and I was pretty young at the time. I’m a slow reader, and for a while I didn’t think I could read well at all. So I should thank the Hardy Boys for getting me into reading at all. I read my older brothers’ copies and then the rest. Some Nancy Drews, too.

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    • Interesting. My mother read stories to me when I was tiny, but I taught myself to read and took on the nightly ritual. I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. A Journey to the Center of the Earth wasn’t a favorite of mine, but I do recall reading the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and the Little House books about the time I was in 2nd-3rd grade. I love the shared stories we have with books we have read. 😊👍💗

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  6. The Bobbsey Twins led me to Nancy Drew who led me to Agatha Christie who led me to everything. I still fall back on the mystery genre when in a drought but Dame Agatha taught me to require more. Took me a while to appreciate the classics but I’m there. I read just about every genre except poetry. Don’t ask😏

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