My mother and father instilled a love of reading and storytelling from the very beginning. Some of my earliest memories are of my mom reading to me and my five siblings every night when we were growing up. All the classics like Blueberries for Sal, The Biggest Bear, May I Bring a Friend, and Where the Wild Things Are when we were very small, and then Charlotte’s Web, The Wind in the Willows, and Stuart Little as we got a little older. She must have been absolutely wrecked at the end of a long, exhausting day, but she always made time to read to us. 

My dad was more of a storyteller, spinning tales out of his head after his own long day at the office, his eyes closed, all of us hanging on every . . . delayed . . . word as he began to drift and his stories mixed with a half-dream.  

Eventually we aged out of story hour and were set off on our own. I especially remember Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, everything by Katherine Paterson, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Madeline L’Engle. “Lights out!” was usually met with shouts of, “Just one more page!” or “Let me just finish this chapter!” I think all my siblings are still avid readers. We may be drawn to different genres, but we all share that passion thanks to our parents.

I’ve loved so many books in my life that I can’t begin to name them all, but there are a few that continue to draw me back. The classics never grow old: Dickens, Austen, and Twain always pull me back in. Amor Towles is delightful to read – his characters are reminiscent of Dickens’s and Twain’s, in my opinion. I think I’ve read Donna Tartt’s The Secret History a half a dozen times. And probably will again. Jonathon Franzen is another one who stops me in my tracks. And they just keep coming. That’s the beauty of literature and the power of human creativity. There’s always another unique plot, another endearing character or fresh twist. May it always be so.

If there’s one piece of advice I would give new parents, it would be to read to your children every single night from the time they’re born. Poetry and literature. As they grow older, make them read. It’s a gift.