The influence of my childhood reading

Having to empty one of my bookcases to move it for the heat pump work was an inconvenience. But on the positive side, it has allowed me to look over some books that I haven’t opened in years.

Some of those books are ones that I received as a child.

I was a bookworm from an early age. I remember being fascinated with books even before I could do more than recognize the letters of the alphabet.

OCD has bothered my reading on and off, but I always find my way back to the love of reading.

Trixie, Honey, Diana, Jim, Brian, and Mart find mysteries to solve even while on vacation in Arizona.

I found my first two Trixie Belden mysteries among some books that my oldest brother had read when he was a young boy. Those Trixie Belden books started my lifelong love of mystery books.

I eventually collected most of the series, but over the years, through a lot of moves as a young adult, I’ve ended up with just two.

I took the whole box of Little House books with me on vacation one time and read my favorite parts as I rode in the car.

When I was in the third or fourth grade, I received the Little House books for Christmas. I read and reread those books so many times. I can still remember many of the stories.

This is the second book in the series, where the Ingalls family moves out to the prairies.

I got in the habit as a child of writing my name in my books. Here’s my signature as a child:

Nancy Drew was another favorite series. I collected a lot of them, and still have them. Password to Larkspur Lane was one of the best.

This book had some scary moments. Nancy helped rescue some elderly people being held against their will.

I’m still working on organizing my books. I’m moving them around on different bookcases, trying to give them a logical order and trying to keep them neat enough to enjoy looking at.

Here’s what I’ve done so far. You can see that I still love mysteries.

On the top shelves, you’ll find Sue Grafton, Kathy Reichs, Meg Gardiner and Lee Child. On the bottom shelf are my Trixie Belden, Little House, and Nancy Drew books.

I’ve recently discovered the mystery/thriller novels of John Sandford. I’ll be adding his books to the shelves soon.

What did you read when you were a child? If you read mysteries now, who is your favorite author?

Reading OCD revisited

The most-read post I’ve written for this blog is one called “Read, reread, again and again: Reading OCD.”

When I check the list of search terms used to find my blog, I often find listed something to do with reading.

I never knew until I wrote that post that so many people with OCD suffer from the compulsion of rereading the words on a page until if feels “right” to move on to the next page.

I used to believe that I was the only person in the world who had that problem.

Reading OCD is one of those OCD symptoms that come and go with me. Sometimes I read unimpeded by any sense that I haven’t read each word “perfectly.”

Other times, it’s a struggle to read, so I just avoid it.

On Goodreads, I set as a goal to read 26 books this year. I set a low goal on purpose, so if my reading OCD kicked in, I wouldn’t totally blow a high goal.

So far, I’ve read 12 books. According to Goodreads, I’m three books behind schedule.

That disappoints me, to be behind schedule. I’ve still got enough “good student” in me to want to measure up, even to an arbitrary goal I set on an online social media site.

More than reaching that goal, though, is the desire to free myself from the reading OCD.

What works best for me is to plow through the pages. I don’t allow myself to go back and reread.

Something I do that helps me to be able to do that is to tell myself that I can go back and reread later if I need to or want to. I delay doing the compulsion of rereading.

After a while of doing this, the anxiety lessens and I start enjoying myself. And I don’t reread.

Reading is one of the chief pleasures of my life. I’m not going to allow anything to keep me from enjoying it.

For your reading pleasure, here’s a list of books that I’ve read this year so far. All of them have been good reads, and I encourage you to check out any that interest you:

Flash and Bones. By Kathy Reichs.

Killing Floor. By Lee Child.

Lessons from the Monk I Married. By Katherine Jenkins.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. By Charles Duhigg.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. By Susan Cain.

Bones Are Forever. By Kathy Reichs.

Ransom River. By Meg Gardiner.

Reaching: A Memoir. By Grace Peterson.

Proof of Heaven. By Eban Alexander.

Tripwire. By Lee Child.

Poison Flower. By Thomas Perry.

The Kill Artist. By Daniel Silva.

  Reading is my favorite leisure-time, solitary activity. What’s yours?