Books...Who Reads Books Anymore?

[Sundae]

I'm like Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird - I wouldn't have said I loved reading when I was little any more than I would have said I loved breathing.

I used to get quite sulky at lunch when I was 9 or 10 because when we ate in the kitchen we had the television on, but I wasn't allowed to read at the table. TV was monitored and limited in my house, but casual meals were always accompanied by the TV because we children argued less then!

If I had books for Christmas my parents would confiscate them until after Boxing Day, otherwise I would hide away and read them, not taking part in the fmaily celebrations.

I probably read about 3 new books a week, taking them out of the library or buying them 2nd hand from our local charity bookshop at £2 each. I'll also reread about 3 or 4 of the favourites I have in the flat - I don't have an awful lot more to do with my time!

My reading age outstripped my comprehension age as a child - I read Joan Aitken's Midnight Is A Place far too young and it haunted me for years - a dark confusing blur of images.

I also sneaked into my Mum's room and read James Herbert's Domain when I didn't have any new books of my own. The description of the nuclear attack on London distressed and sickened me so much, I felt violated and wished I could open up the top of my head and give my brain a wash.

Of course the resilience of youth meant that within a week I was back reading it chapter by chapter when Mum was at work. She shrieked one evening, reading it in the living room, and carried away I said, "Oh have you got to the bit where the arm is chopped off?" Boy was I in trouble.

Oh and to answer a previous question - I have read The Turn of the Screw. It just didn't touch me that much. In fact I've tried it twice - I'm afraid it's just not for me.