What better place to share my background of being a bookworm than on my blog? I personally love hearing from others about how they fell in love with books, their first favorite book, what kind of reader they were as a child and generally how they’ve become the reader they are now. I love that stuff. Seriously, I’ll talk to you all day about it.

Reading has always been this magical, secretive hobby to me. I know it’s not really secretive, as so many people are readers. But it’s a deeply personal act: to sit with yourself and someone else’s words on a page, and go somewhere inside your mind. Yes, there are book clubs and buddy reads and conversations in which you share what you’re reading. But, really, you’re the only person experiencing the story in real time as your eyes roam the page. It’s something you can have to yourself, or you can share the experience with others. I’ve certainly enjoyed both.

My first memory of a book is my parents reading Grover Sleeps Over by Elizabeth Winthrop to me every night. I’m not sure how many nights in a row I made them read this story to me, but apparently it was a good while. What can I say? I’ve always been a creature of habit. This story is where it all started, really. I’m so thankful that my parents made reading to me a priority. Especially since I’m sure reading the same thing every night got pretty old. Throughout my life they’ve always encouraged and been supportive of my interests (and honestly, I don’t think they realize how much that means to me as I look back on my life).

Now, the first novel I remember actually reading – and by reading I mean devouring – is Little Women. It was the young readers edition, but ten-year-old me thought I was reading the real thing. I was fascinated by the setting and I fell in love with the characters. I also experienced my first literary heartbreak when my favorite character didn’t make it. That didn’t stop me from rereading it and carrying my copy in my backpack with me everywhere for a while.

**Childhood**

*A Series of Unfortunate Events*

Later in elementary school, I found a new obsession in A Series of Unfortunate Events. As far as I was concerned, this Lemony Snicket guy was a literary genius. Although I haven’t reread these books as an adult, I fully believe they will hold up. Maybe I should test that sometime. I couldn’t get enough of this story about these three orphans who were trying to escape an odd-looking, creepy man trying to steal their inheritance. The settings were dreary and peculiar, and the events that unfolded were truly unfortunate! But it was suspenseful and I just had to find out what would happen.

Tearing through these thirteen books in a single school year was the first time I experienced the “unputdownable” sensation that I still chase to this day. If you’re a reader, you know there’s no feeling like it! I also want to give an honorable mention to the following series that also captivated and shaped me as a reader: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park, Geronimo Stilton by Elizabetta Dami, and Moody Judy by Megan McDonald.

By the time I reached high school, it was all about John Green. I started with The Fault in Our Stars and then made my way through all of his other books. Again, there was this engrossing factor in his stories that I couldn’t get enough of. I would spend a week with my family at our cabin in the summer, bring five or more books, and have the whole stack read by the time we went home. What a time.

When I look back on the books I read as a teenager, I do see a pattern. I gravitated toward books that depicted a reality I was just beginning to be aware of. Difficult parts of life such as grief, mental illness, and loneliness are apparent in these books. This makes perfect sense to me. At that age I was past believing in fairytales in which happy endings were a guarantee.

So I want to give an honorable mention to the following books that satisfied my desire for more grown up topics and harsh realities of history: It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, and Copper Sun by Sharon Draper.

I didn’t start to imagine that I could make a career out of my love for books until I was a senior in high school. My AP English IV teacher had us spend the first six weeks of school focusing on what we wanted to do after graduation. I’m so thankful that we had to research our dream career, shadow someone in the industry for a day, and create a presentation about it. This solidified the possibility of book publishing as a career for me.

And now here we are! I got my degree in English, started out as a freelance writer, got my certification at the Denver Publishing Institute, and now I’m a freelance editor! I spend my time reading manuscripts and supporting authors as they work to bring their unique stories to the world.

**Adulthood…So far ;)**

Alice Hoffman and Donna Tartt

As for my reading taste in my twenties… I’ve deeply enjoyed the works of Alice Hoffman and Donna Tartt. I’d say they’re my top two authors. I fell in love with Hoffman’s four-book Practical Magic series (no, not just a 1998 movie!) which spans generations of the Owens family and centers on family, love, and magic. I’ve been utterly captivated by Tartt’s The Goldfinch and The Secret History, both of which I loved for the immense amount of detail and vivid, complex characters. Both of these works lingered in my mind long after I finished reading them.

I also enjoy a fair bit of nonfiction, usually about writing (occasionally about other topics, though writing and editing take up the most space in my brain).

I want to warmly extend honorable mentions in this category to: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, On Writing by Stephen King, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, and Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation by Erika Krouse.

That’s me so far! It’ll be interesting to see what books will be added to this list in the future. Isn’t it wonderful: the thought of all the books future-you will love, and present-you doesn’t even know they exist? The books themselves may not even exist yet!

There’s nothing like falling in love with a story or an author’s writing (or both!) and I want nothing more than to help share that feeling with readers through my editing work.

A Bookish History (of Me)

Slowing Down To Speed Up? A Lesson I’m Learning

10 Books I’m *Dying* To Read This Fall

10 Books I’m Dying To Read This Fall