then roundabout christmastime, my third grade year (are you nine in third grade? i forget), that all changed. someone gave me the entire boxed set of the laura ingalls wilder books. (they're true stories about a girl and her family on the prairie, and they have log cabins and bears and maple syrup and dreams and covered wagons and falling in love on sleds, and training horses and all sorts of marvelous and wonderful and perfect things to pique the interest of an odd little nine year old like i was.)
my mom read me the first one and didn't have time for the second, so i picked one up and taught myself to read by...well...reading. it created a monster. i devoured books like other children devoured ice cream. i read books in my room at night by the light of the streetlamp, outside, and yes, this did permanently damage my eyesight and i'm mostly blind without my contacts these days. but it was worth it.
this is probably why i have always dreamed of having, for my very own, a genuine beauty-and-the-beast private personal just for me library like...these:
