First thoughts and a thank you to my Mom

I have been a reader of, lover of, collector of, and admirer of books, good books, since I learned to read my first word which just happened to be "look". I remember the pure joy with which I shared my new found education with my mother. She happened to be standing in our kitchen getting ready to prepare what most certainly was one of the many delicious meals that our family ate. What does this have to do with reading? Probably not a lot but in hindsight I realize that part of my abiding love for reading grew from Mom's response. She was a busy lady...my younger sister was a colicky baby with a lot of health problems and I am certain that Mom had better things to do on that rainy afternoon in a late fall day in Wisconsin than to stop, put aside everything else and concentrate on one wildly excited and highly educated little girl. But she did put aside everything else and give my announcement of "Mommy I can read, Mommy I can read....look, look, look" her full and undivided attention. This moment was important to me so it was important to her. To this day, the act of reading is somehow connected to the love of my mother and her pride in me and all of my accomplishments....it didn't matter to her if I learned one word that day or a thousand. So in this my first ever blog, I want to say Thank You Mom for shutting the refrigerator, turning off the oven, tuning out the colicky baby, not answering the phone and giving me your love. "Mommy, I can read." In other posts I will ponder on the question of what makes a good book, why certain authors can assemble words in a fashion that puts a reader to sleep and other authors can use the same words and create a world within their work that invites readers in, enthralls them, and makes them reluctant to leave when it is time to turn the light off and go to bed.