the love of reading saved my life

and for that I have my mom to thank

the greatest gift my mother has given me in this lifetime is the gift of language, and the love of reading.

***

my journey started with my mom reading me bedtime stories. apparently, as she was reading me fairytales from a book, the process piqued my interest.

“how do you know what’s on the page?”

she got me my first abc book (known as a букварь (boo-kvar) in russian) shortly after, and i haven’ stopped reading ever since. according to her (i dont remember any of this) i learned very quickly, because i genuinely wanted to and she was an eager and patient teacher. before we knew it i was reading all on my own. in pre-K and kindergarten i was given books to read aloud for my classmates before our afternoon nap - something the teachers would normally be doing.

***

trips to the bookstore became my favorite, and i would finish any book i was gifted in the car on the way home, only to re-read it over and over until the next time i got to go to the bookstore.

i became known as the cousin/niece who loved reading among the family, so the gifts i would get most often would be books and i was absolutely delighted with that.

***

i was reading anything i could get my hands on -

both of my grandma’s had extensive libraries in their apartments. coincidentally, both of them had one wall of their respective apartments floor to ceiling dedicated to bookshelves. the shelves were filled with all kinds of books: from the Quran to random poetry, self-development books, and history novels.

***

“Gone With The Wind” was a book that meant a lot to my mom, and one of my grandma’s happened to have all of the volumes in her collection. naturally, i read all of it - the romantic story with a war and injustice undertone opened up a door into my mom’s brain and heart.

so this is what she likes, how she thinks, and who she looks up to.

up to that point my book selection was not so well thought out. I’d simply read anything I happened to find. this was the first time I chose a book to connect to someone - the person who gave me the gift of reading in the first place.