My Passion for Reading

I am an avid reader. One of the best things in the world is getting lost in a book and staying up all night because you have to know what happens. I have always been a reader. The Nancy Drew books were my first series. At Christmas time and my birthday, I would pass out pieces of papers to my family with the numbers of the series I was missing to ensure I would get to my goal of owning all 56 hard back books in the collection. I had a list that had all the titles. And as I got each book, I would write the year in the front and cross it off the list. I can say today that I am the proud owner of all 56 hard back books in the Nancy Drew collection plus a cook book (which will one day have a blog of its very own) and a how to be a sleuth book (and some paper backs). Growing up I also had each title and the corresponding number memorized and my best friend would randomly call out a # and I would say the title.  (#30 The Clue of the Velvet Mask). Maybe I should not be confessing how big of a geek I am (ahem…was).

The first in the Nancy Drew Series.

The inside cover. I received this one in 1979.

The list of Nancy Drew titles.

My love of reading translated into me wanting to be a writer. I have wanted to write as long as I can remember. I wrote my first 10 chapter book when I was 9 or 10. I patterned it after the Nancy Drew series. My mom typed it up for me and I actually sent it away to be published. It was rejected. I still have the manuscript my mom typed for me. I have misplaced the rejection letter. I know it is somewhere in my stuff and hopefully will find it one day.

My manuscript that my mom typed. Over 30+ years old! 🙂

I love quotes. Whenever I read and come across something that resonates with me, I highlight them. The really good ones, I write in a notebook. I do the same with movies. So periodically I thought I would dedicate a blog to recent quotes I have come across while reading. Here are just a few:

“Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.” Steel Magnolias

“Most people are not where they want to be in life because they are too busy talking about all the great things they want to do rather than actually doing them.” Author unknown or not remembered.

“To encounter God is to change. You cannot encounter God and not change.” Alan Hirsch

“A good organization will never guarantee an effective leader, but a bad organization will kill you every time.” David Gergen An Eyewitness to Power.

“It is amazing what you can still become after you thought it was all over.” Matthew Barnett

“A good way to start is to stand.” Santa Claus is Coming to Town

“The very capacity to see the road behind enabled him to see where the road was heading. It is a priceless asset for a leader.” David Gergen on Nixon in An Eyewitness to Power. 

“Emmanuel — God with us. God with us and for us and in us and holding us and this is the Christmas miracle that outlasts all of time.” Ann Voskamp

“All tired men are pessimists.” ?

“If you’re not growing, you’re dying.” Me

“We do not get to define Jesus, Jesus gets to define us.” Alan Hirsch