While books are being banned in parts of the US I reflect on the value and impact of reading on my life.
My earliest memory of books is of my father reading Little Women to me, followed by Little Men, and Jo’s Boys. Then sending me on my way to choose my own stories from an approved list of classics that included such titles as Heidi, Black Beauty, Robinson Crusoe, and The Water Babies.
While attending The Royal Latin School as a teenager, I recall reading The Hobbit by Tolkien, Chaucer’s Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Time and the Conways by JB Priestly and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
When I came to the US, I knew nothing of American Literature as I embarked on my studies to become an English teacher and felt extremely foolish when I received an answer from my professor, Dr. Finkelstein, to my question, “Did Edgar Allen Poe ever write anything cheerful?”.
His reply, “Everybody knows, good literature is NEVER cheerful” exposed my ignorance.
I realized there was an unexplored world of stories waiting to be discovered and I was excited to excavate meaning, find myself in the pages of other’s words, discover the beauty of language, get uncomfortable, recognize truth, challenge my assumptions, grow in empathy and realize, gratefully, that I was not alone.
Now that I have written a memoir, I am understanding something else about books. Some people are threatened by the truth contained within the pages. To those people I say, “Do not be afraid”. Read, read, read and choose Eros.
To my father, I say, “Thank you.”
“Banning books is just another form of bullying. It’s all about fear and an assumption of power. The key is to address the fear and deny the power.” ― James Howe
Julie’s Encounters 