During the summer after kindergarten, I was involved in a reading contest at my local library. The person who read the most books won a prize and got their name in the local paper (it was a small town). Being the avid bookworm that I was, I set about to see how many books I could read. I’m not sure what the duration of the contest was, but I read a total of 262 books. The 2nd place person in my age category was a good 100 books behind me. I remember getting to pick out a book – I chose “Clifford: The Big Red Dog”.

I have always enjoyed reading. Recently, I haven’t been reading as much, of which I’m a bit wistful. It seems that anytime I try to pick up a book, something big happens in my life that makes me have to put it down for a few weeks (for example, getting married). I hope to stop that and spend more time with books. After all, they were my closest friends for so long.

Another side note: when we lived in Peru, our mission organization was in need of a place to store a bunch of books. Since we lived in a fairly large house, we offered, and therefore became keepers of many bookcases of books. Most of them were written in the 50s and 60s. My favorite series was “Judy Bolton” by Margaret Sutton (Kristen-is she a relation?), a mystery series similar to Nancy Drew but a bit more realistic (in my opinion!). There were also many miscellaneous books, like “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” – always a good read. On our honeymoon, Paul and I found an “Odds and Ends” shop that had many of the books from that time period. I was delighted to find some old favorites! I hope to build up my collection – but not too fast while we are still moving around. :-)

The point of this post was not really about books, but rather to fill out this meme that Susan tagged me to do! Therefore, read and enjoy!

1. One book that changed your life: Third Culture Kids, by David Pollock and Ruth Van Reken… also Letters Never Sent, by Ruth Van Reken (I read them around the same time and both together affected me significantly)

2. One book that you’ve read more than once: Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery… The Moon-Spinners, by Mary Stewart (yeah, the phrase “one book” is relative to me ;-))

3. One book you’d want on a desert island: probably something like “How to Make a Boat” or “How to Harness Sea Turtles Using Human Hair”… but for entertainment purposes, I’ll have to echo Susan’s answer of The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas

4. One book that made you laugh: The Cat Who Came In From the Cold, by Deric Longden (a must for any cat lover!!)

5. One book that made you cry: The Penny Whistle, by BJ Hoff… and Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech

6. One book that you wish had been written: “The Golden Years: Narnia During the Reign of High King Peter”… also, “What Happened in Narnia after Kings Peter and Edmund and Queens Susan and Lucy Mysteriously Disappeared” (do you agree with me, Hannah?)

7. One book that you wish had never been written: it’s not a book persay but I wish Playboy had never been published, or anything else in that genre

8. One book you’re currently reading: A Collection of Works: Smoke and Steel, Slabs of the Sunburnt West, Good-Morning America, by Carl Sandburg

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read: all of Jane Austen’s books, but especially Pride and Prejudice

10. Now tag four people: Beth, Joanna, Matt, Nichole… and of course anyone else who might be interested :-)