Encouragement to Read and Write Books

 

"If you wish to be a writer, write."

–Epictetus, C. 50-120 A.D.

 

  Me and Daddy. 

My father was an avid reader, mainly mass market paperback books, although my parents did subscribe to Book of the Month Club.  Of those books I recall Kon-tiki, Payton Place, Captain and Kings, What Makes Sammy Run, A Woman Called Fancy, all of which I read as a kid, along with others.  Daddy would read every night as soon as he finished reading the newspaper.  He always had a book in his hand, whether he was watching TV, or just sitting in his upholstered platform rocker in the living room.  He was the main reason I came to appreciate books as I did.  After I was married, he would often give me a bag of paperback books, usually lots of Detectives and Westerns, Louis L'Amour, Max Brand, and a few spicy books (spicy for those days of the early 1960s).  I recall reading one of the spicy popular gems, and deciding I could write that.  So one night after putting my two young children to bed, I got out my typewriter and began to write a sexy novel.  Didn't go well.  I gave up on the second night.  So for a time that squelched by writing career.  I told my Daddy and he just smiled.  A couple of years later, I wrote a nonfiction children's science proposal and sent it off to NY.  I soon had a response and the editor wanted to see my manuscript when completed.  Well, that scared the hell of me!  I never finished the manuscript!  Soon after I did write a children's storybook but NY turned it down.  I often wish my Dad was still here to experience my writing since those days.  He passed in 1978, before I seriously got back into writing.  But I thank him for encouraging me to read!   

Did you receive encouragement from someone to read books?

~Linda