We read...

To know we are not alone. ~C.S. Lewis~

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Why do I read?

Echoing C.S. Lewis, my mother always said you're never alone when you've got a book and to an only child 'alone' is something you have in abundance. As an undiagnosed dyslexic reading was never antidote to that alone-ness, I couldn't understand how anyone could love reading the way my parents did.

It was all just scibbly black lines of incoherent, isolated words arranged in-between fascinating rivers created by the patterns of the spaces on each page. The words I struggled to read never formed into sentences much less a narrative. If I did manage to get to the end of a sentence it often didn't make any sense anyway "this is Susan's dad" was to me "this is Susan's dab/bad" -*she frowns* huh? I can remember being excruciatingly embrarrassed about not being able to do what the other kids seemed to be able to do so naturally & I was aware that I was different, odd if you will, but I didn't know what questions to ask to find out how I was different. I was particularly sensitive about not being able to tell the difference between 'd' & 'b' hoping no-one would notice how dumb I was - I love the irony now!

How lucky I was to have a mum who read to me so devotedly for so long. She was a wise woman and I adored her, perhaps that's why I believed her in spite of my own reading experience. I loved books simply because she told me they were worthy of loving.

So this is my blog about my love of reading, words and language. It's just for me as an affirmation of a long hard struggle to find out for myself that books are worthy of my affection.

4 comments:

Rebecca Johnson said...

Welcome to the world of blogging! I'm very much looking forward to reading your blog :)

wendy elizabeth said...

well I enjoy your blogs (you may notice the resemblance!) so much I thought it was time to use some of those hard-earned ETW skills & join in on the world of blogging!

Anonymous said...

Hey! Welcome to the world of blogging.
If you get a chance, check out First Daughter, by Eric Van Lustbader. His protagonist is dyslexic. I'd be interested in having someone with similar struggles read it, to see if he gets it right.
I reviewed it here:
http://elizabethwillse.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/first-daughter-book-review-2/

wendy elizabeth said...

Thanks Elzabeth. I've added this book to my reading list not only for the dyslexia sub- plot but I am also interested in the Church/state separation enshrined in America's constitutional first amendment. Our feelings on this issue are not as clear-cut in Australia.