Patricia

Early on it was decided I would be a reader. I remember my mother fully engaged, as always, in the kitchen so many years ago teaching me the pronunciation and spelling of words as I pointed a tiny finger in her cookbooks - she claims I was almost four years old. For ever more she encouraged reading, history and spelling and would express with... more »

Early on it was decided I would be a reader. I remember my mother fully engaged, as always, in the kitchen so many years ago teaching me the pronunciation and spelling of words as I pointed a tiny finger in her cookbooks - she claims I was almost four years old. For ever more she encouraged reading, history and spelling and would express with beautiful dark brown eyes her love of the classics. To this day we exchange weekly conversations on what we read, and what we like and don't like about our current books.

We both love to hold our books and smell the fresh or old ink. We both have wandered together for hours in old antique shops and new book stores on our endless quests for reading material. She is very respectful of books and would never consider folding or marking a page. She holds them with both her hands and smooths the covers. On the other hand, I dog-ear pages and write in the margins. I stuff them into my bag and find myself snapping the bindings. Sometimes I hug my books and wake to find the book in that very position. I want to take the whole book in and I don't want to forget the passages that sometimes bring tiny changes and moments of enlightenment into my life.

Many years ago I lived overseas in Wales - one had to pay a license fee for the use of the television. At that time it was not affordable and I read constantly which became the most wonderful habit I have ever taken up. I also listened to the radio. Each afternoon stations would read plays and books. There was so much more to the radio programming in that beautiful county during the early seventies.

I am grateful for those times and to the many people in my life who opened the world of books and reading for me.

My name is Patricia and I reside in New York in a lovely village called Avon. I am the proud mother to six lovely children. « less