Books are extremely important to me; sadly, as I’ve grown up there has been less and less time to read.  Either that or the books we were given to read in school were boring.  I go with the latter.
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When I was little, libraries were awesome places and librarians were very nice people.  The library near my house was huge, had two stories (but many books ;) ) and was amazing.  It had ramps and a huge lawn and computers and stairways and towering bookcases and columns and these comfy seats in the adult section to sit in and read.  It was Paradise for a young child who loved to read.  Every time I went there I would carry out a huge stack of books.  I had a cloth book-bag the library sold.   Sometimes it couldn’t hold everything I bought.
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Even the library in my school was amazing.  It spanned three rooms and was where I first found drawing books.  I’m not sure how helpful they were to me, but I loved the craft books even if I never did anything in them.  I read nearly the entire mythology section in the school.  I knew as much about the gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece/Rome as the people who actually worshiped them.  To this day I haven’t quite learned the heroes’ names, but I can give summaries of most of the myths.  I know more about imaginary creatures than I do about math.  Of course this won’t get me very far in real life, but should I ever get sucked into a wormhole and end up in ancient Greece…  I had a few favorite books in the school library.  One had adjectives and pictures I think.  I just know one page had a dog that fit in a teacup.  Then there was one on Big Cats.  Finally, there was Blue Moon Mountain.  This book has a young girl born during a blue moon, and one night during another blue moon, she climbs a mountain and finds all these mythological creatures; some I’d heard of (unicorns and mermaids) and some I hadn’t (basilisks and the kraken more so).  In the back were pictures of each creature with a description.  This book became my memorized guide for mythological creatures for the rest of my life.  Sadly it was stolen and never returned.  Now it’s out of print.
I remember the first thick book I read.  It was Matilda by Roald Dahl.  I read it for school during a reading program, back when Pizza Hut offered good pizza and toys.  I tried Moby Dick like she did, but I just couldn’t get into it.  I did continue to read avidly though.
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Then I moved to the U.P.  Considering so many trees are cut down around here, there aren’t many books.  The library is skimpy and it’s not aesthetically pleasing.  By now I understand little kids have germs and I’m now scared of the children’s section.  Worse of all are the librarians.  They scare me.  Only in the last half year have they attempted to be nice to me.  I know how to use the computer and I know sort of how to look for books, but I still like personal help sometimes.  I don’t know what it is, I just don’t like going to the library anymore.
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Barnes and Noble is Heaven on Earth.  I mean, it’s ginormous.  It is filled with books.  Even when they don’t’ have what I’m looking for, it’s filled with books.  This idea is astonishing.  I skip merrily into the place and lose my breath from giggling and grinning excitedly.  It’s wonderful.   It takes enough work to get me out of Bookworld, so Barnes and Noble is near impossible.  Sadly they don’t seem to update their manga and drawing sections, so I end up wandering into other parts of the store, but the euphoria I feel coming in makes up for it to a point.  Waldenbooks, now that is cool.  They have an entire wall of manga.  And the shelves go up really high.  Back when they had deals for “Buy 3 get the 4th free” I was excited to no end.  I would walk out with $70+ every time.  However, the company stopped giving me deals, so I stuck between there and Barnes and Noble.
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Some of My Favorite Books:
<br><u>Into the Land of the Unicorns</u> by Bruce Coville
<br><u>Alice in Wonderland</u> and <u>Alice Through the Looking Glass</u> by Lewis Carol
<br>The Midnight Louie Series by Carole Nelson Douglas
<br>The Hitchhiker Trilogy by Douglas Addams 
<br><u>Neverwhere</u> by Neil Gaiman
<br><u>Anansi Boys</u> by Neil Gaiman
<br><u>The Picture of Dorian Gray</u> by Oscar Wilde
<bt>Fruits Basket
<br>Naruto
<br>Planet Ladder
<br>Faeries’ Landing
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