At some point when I was a teenager, I weeded out my bookshelf, and put some old favorites in a bag that ended up either in the basement or attic. The bag of old books found its way into a large box of stuffed animals, vinyl records and a hand-embroidered map of the Roman Empire that I'd made for my 9th grade World Cultures class. The box found its way to Maryland when my parents moved here from New Jersey thirteen years ago.
This weekend, I went through the boxes, and found my bag of old friends. There was Madelyn L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time trilogy, plus The Moon by Night, which I remember devouring while on vacation-- and have never found in a bookstore or library when looking for books for my daughters. There were a few Paul Zindel books, and then my absolute favorite children's book of all time-- The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by D. Manus Pinkwater. I remember seeing this listed in a Scholastic Books catalog in fourth grade, and finding it funny because at the time, my father was commuting to New York City through the Hoboken, NJ train station. I ordered it, and must have read it three or four times back to back. The image of the escaped 226 pound chicken named Henrietta roaming the streets of Hoboken never failed to make me laugh.
I look forward to rereading my old books over the next few weeks. It seems in a way like I discovered some old friends.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Sharon's Reading Blog
I remember the first novel I ever read: Beverly Cleary's Beezus and Ramona. My aunt and uncle had given me a few of her books when I was 6 years old, and they were difficult at first since there was at least one word on the first page that I didn't know. But once I learned what "exasperating" meant, the book had me hooked.
We lived in Montvale, New Jersey until I was eight, and the very best part was that the library was walking distance, and I was allowed to go there by myself. I had hoped to read every book in the children's section. It was a huge disappointment when we moved to nearby Woodcliff Lake, to find that the only libraries were the school libraries. In the summer, I had to feed my reading habit in other towns.
Reading fiction was important to me throughout school, and I majored in English with writing emphasis and Spanish at Goucher College. During this time, though I had pretty much stopped reading for fun, focusing mainly on what was assigned for my classes.
The most important book I read in college was Eva Luna by Isabel Allende. I had studied it in detail for a Spanish Literature seminar, and had written about the book extensively. When I graduated, the economy was bad, entry level jobs were scarce, and my job skills and experience were non-existent. I'd spent about six months searching for jobs and temping in the Baltimore-Washington area after graduation, when I found a help wanted ad for a quirky non-profit on K Street. They were looking for someone who could write, and who spoke Spanish. I thought I did extremely well at the first interview, enough so that I was surprised that I wasn't called back for a second interview. About a month later, they ran the ad again. My savings were dwindling, and the threat of having to move back to my parents' house was becoming very real. I wrote a letter to the Executive Director, and basically begged for that job.
They called me for a second interview, this time with a panel-- consisting of the entire office. This was intimidating, but one of the employees, Claudia sized me up and down... then asked me what was my favorite book. Sure enough, it was her favorite book as well, and the interview, which could have been a discussion of my poor typing skills and lack of experience in anything other than being an arts and crafts camp counselor, turned into a discussion of literature. I started the job the following week.
We lived in Montvale, New Jersey until I was eight, and the very best part was that the library was walking distance, and I was allowed to go there by myself. I had hoped to read every book in the children's section. It was a huge disappointment when we moved to nearby Woodcliff Lake, to find that the only libraries were the school libraries. In the summer, I had to feed my reading habit in other towns.
Reading fiction was important to me throughout school, and I majored in English with writing emphasis and Spanish at Goucher College. During this time, though I had pretty much stopped reading for fun, focusing mainly on what was assigned for my classes.
The most important book I read in college was Eva Luna by Isabel Allende. I had studied it in detail for a Spanish Literature seminar, and had written about the book extensively. When I graduated, the economy was bad, entry level jobs were scarce, and my job skills and experience were non-existent. I'd spent about six months searching for jobs and temping in the Baltimore-Washington area after graduation, when I found a help wanted ad for a quirky non-profit on K Street. They were looking for someone who could write, and who spoke Spanish. I thought I did extremely well at the first interview, enough so that I was surprised that I wasn't called back for a second interview. About a month later, they ran the ad again. My savings were dwindling, and the threat of having to move back to my parents' house was becoming very real. I wrote a letter to the Executive Director, and basically begged for that job.
They called me for a second interview, this time with a panel-- consisting of the entire office. This was intimidating, but one of the employees, Claudia sized me up and down... then asked me what was my favorite book. Sure enough, it was her favorite book as well, and the interview, which could have been a discussion of my poor typing skills and lack of experience in anything other than being an arts and crafts camp counselor, turned into a discussion of literature. I started the job the following week.
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