Think Back...

I have always enjoyed reading. I always had book with me when I was a kid. The free personal pizzas and good grades were just icing, really. I would have read those books anyway.

My earliest memories of reading were bedtime stories with my mom and dad. They both took turns reading with me at night, and each had their own style. Mom would read things like the Berenstain Bears--the entire series is still somewhere in the attic--and I would fall to sleep at a reasonable hour, probably out of boredom. Dad, on the other hand, read the stranger things like Dr. Seuss, Lewis Carroll, Roald Dahl, and others. We would stay up often past midnight, on school nights no less. I (secretly) enjoyed those stories much more and still do now.

My absolute favorite book as a kid was "Where the Wild Things Are". I had such a wild imagination as a kid that my mom would sometimes call me "Max". I think that book also resulted in my not being scared of boogie-men or closet-monsters growing up... I would rather build a Lego spaceship with them.

A book that made a huge difference in my life was "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Of course, the metaphors are beautiful in it and the story was perfect, but what grabbed me so much as a kid was the space travel aspect. I wanted so much to be an astronaut so that I could find a planet of my own some day. Eventually I decided I liked writing more than I liked science. However, if they ever need volunteers (guinea pigs) to colonize Mars, I am first on board!