I remember vividly what it's like to read as a 10-year-old - that passionate inhabiting of a book.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
For a child, reading a book can be such an intense experience.
I was passionate about reading from an early age, and I would always be carrying a different book each week.
My writing works best when I remember that bookish child who adored reading and gear the work toward him.
I loved to read when I was a kid, and as soon as I realized that an actual person got to make up the books I loved so much, I decided that that was the job for me.
I fell in love with reading when I was allowed to choose whatever books I wanted to check out of the library. I was around nine years old when I began choosing my own books in earnest.
I still feel, as I did when I was six or seven, that books are simply the best way to experience a story.
I loved to read and to write, but then something happened. As I made my way through school, I kept getting handed books to read that didn't excite me and didn't even remotely connect to the realities of my life.
A lot of times, when I go back to books I loved when I was young, I don't quite understand what it was that I loved about them. Rereading 'The Secret Garden,' I felt a lot like Mary feels when she visits her garden.
I read a whole lot as a child, and, of course, I still read children's books.
When I was 9 or 10 years old it wasn't the thing to be seen doing - reading a book in your spare time.