February 2

The First Book I Ever Heard

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Welcome to this week’s Marketing for Romance Writer’s 52-week blog challenge topic, A Book that has Influenced my Life. Initially I thought about discussing the Lord of the Rings series. I was going to discuss how that influential book, and series, effectively captured my imagination in high school, but then I realized I already mentioned it in this post and probably others. But those weren’t the first books to influence my life, in fact, the one that probably influenced me more than most of the others was one that I didn’t even read.

Old School Audiobooks

When I was a child, we didn’t have audiobooks, we had my mother. I come from a family of readers, and

Scruff, waiting for someone to read him a story.

I credit some of my love of a good story to her. Even though money was often tight we always had a plethora of kids books. If we didn’t buy them from the store we got them at yard sales or borrowed them from the library. Once our attention started to wane from the children’s stories we could read, my mother helped us advance to novels by reading them to us.  

A Different Kind of Book Club

Each night after my sister and I got ready for bed my mother would sit at the foot of the bed and read us a chapter.  I’d ruminate on what might happen next and sometimes discuss it with my sister and my mother until the next night when the story continued. That is, If we couldn’t convince my mother to #read just one more chapter. #MFRW #books Share on X The series that I believe she read first were the Little House on The Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Listening to their adventures from the 1870s in the Little House in the Big Woods fascinated me. My love of these stories continued as the family, and their stories, were depicted on television.  

The Story Continues

reading, books, influential books
A small selection of my girl’s book collection.

I carried on the tradition of reading a chapter a night with my girls. Although when I started to read the first of the Little House series, I did hesitate a little at the description of a frightened girl huddled in her home fearing wolves or other wild animals. I didn’t recall that part of the story when I was a child. Perhaps my mother sugarcoated the scene a little as I did to prevent nightmares, because all I remember is how much I loved the books. I like to think that perhaps I played a small part in making my girls into the avid readers they are today. But I can’t take all the credit. There’s not much that can compete with the magic of a good story.

Check Out the Books That Influenced the Other Authors

MFRW Blog Hop influential booksFollow the blog hop to see the influential books other authors discussed.    


Tags

blog hop, Books, influential book, Little House on the Praire, Lord of the Rings, parenting, reading, twins


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  1. I vividly remember my mother reading to me and my brothers. Those are cherished memories. I also read to my children and hope they remember that with the same affection.

  2. My 3rd grade teacher read us Blue Ridge Billy and Wren; I couldn’t wait to read them by myself, since she only read one chapter a day.

    I also LOVED the Little house books and the TV series:) My kids thought I was nuts in the early 00s, when I found the series on TV and watched it from start to finish over the course of maybe 2 years. If I knew I was going to be gone during that hour for whatever reason, I taped it and watched it later. It was great seeing the ones I’d forgotten about, or that the weather had interfered with my viewing ‘back then’.

  3. For several years, we shared a roof with my uncle’s family. My sister and older (female) cousin loved to play school, and when I couldn’t get out of it, I was the designated pupil. The only part I enjoyed was when they read aloud to the class, i.e. me.

    1. My girls used to play school when they were small and my mom was always the pupil- who never graduated to first grade, lol.

  4. We read to our kids and they look forward to bedtime stories. The younger two prefer being read to over having to read themselves. Sadly none of my kids have yet to find their love of reading. 🙁 We were given one of those books where you make choices at the end of a chapter to decide what part to read next, the boys got a kick out of getting to pick.

    1. They still might, Meka. It wasn’t until my girls discovered the Unfortunate Events series that they got hooked on reading.

  5. The story I remember Mom reading to me was “The Elephants Child” by Rudyard Kipling. I have his book of stories that includes that one along with The Jungle Book stories which I loved! I also have the complete set of Little House on the Prairie books which I would read over and over and can still go back to for what I call “comfort reading”, less calories. Reading is what I do as an adult to relax and is something I find time to do whenever I can. I read to my son and he does enjoy reading as does his wife. It is something they have in common.

  6. I read to my kids every night for years, too (the “sugarcoated version”, in some places). You’re right, it’s so important. I love your girl’s book collection!

  7. My mother read to us and I read to my kids. I’ve read to my older grandkids. I’ve even read them my children book I published. That was pretty cool.

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