Day 1 - Welcome!

 Bookworms: born or made? 

I've always loved to read. Reading was one of my favourite activities when I wanted time for myself. Books were everywhere in my room and I remember reading with my mum, who is a great reader herself. That's why this pic of the woman and her child sharing a book is so appealing to me. 

The fact that reading can be both a solitary and a shared experience makes me realize the importance of passing the love of books from parents to children. In my opinion, as a catchy phrase, I would say that "parents readers make children readers as children learn by imitation." Nevertheless, there will be people there who absolutely love books whose parents never shared a reading moment with them; and, the other way round, people who dislike reading whose parents were big fans of books. This is a long debate that will not lead to any conclusion as there are as many circumstances as people. 

If there is something that I have clear about my parents building my reading habits is that they never ever told me to read anything. I chose my own stories and my own times. I remember being in the book department of a well-known department store in my city, I was like 9 years old and I asked my father to buy me a book. That book was Carrie by Stephen King. I remember that I devoured that book and I also remember the face of my mother when I proudly showed her my new acquisition. Definitely, that was not a book for a pre-teen, but my father never questioned neither that nor any of the subsequent Stephen King books that I asked. 

What if he had told me? "sorry, babe, that book ain't for you, why don't you read [insert here book for kids] instead? It's impossible to know but I can assure that those books I read being a kid shaped the kind of person I am now. If I hadn't read King, would I have fallen in love with Poe and the rest of the romantics? We'll never know!

I met King in Spanish, but as my level of the English language improved, I started reading my favourite authors in their native language. I remember reading Harry Potter 1, 2 and 3 in Spanish and then, being unable to wait for the Spanish version, reading parts 4, 5, 6 and 7 in English. I also remember my mum's adventures to find the books in English. 

If I look back in retrospective, I can see that I have gone throught different phases: terror stories, including vampires and werewolves, romances, noir novels... right now, I feel like reading dystopic science fiction novels as I feel that we are on the verge of some kind of selfdestruction and I see our society reflected on those books in a way.

When it comes to the format, I prefer paper than e-book, however, I have an e-book and I use it if I have to travel or at night when I go to bed and I don't want to disturb my husband. Luckily, we share the same passion for reading and he can't be bothered by that! I love reading after lunch and after dinner, obviously before falling asleep and when I'm having a tea... however, I am a mother of two now and I can't find the peace to grab a book so often.