The joy of reading is an inherited and comforting pastime passed down from my mother, Ramona. Reading was strongly encouraged by my past teachers while attending Alma Consolidated and Caledonia Regional High School. The Alma School library was a space to get excited about ‒ pulling a book off the shelf to explore its contents made life a little more interesting and helped me connect to a world bigger than the nearby lullaby shores of Waterside Beach.
The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series had many gaps in their section as everyone was scrambling to see what Frank and Joe Hardy's next adventure would entail, or if Nancy would solve the mystery as a skillful sleuth. There would be an occasional eye-roll from your peers if you remained in the Apple Paperback series beyond age thirteen. It was time to move on to Stephen King’s IT, perhaps Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and, one of my favourites as a young adult, The Diary of Anne Frank, written by the young girl hidden behind the bookcase, Anne Frank herself.