Since a very young age, my mother has instilled in me a love to reading and books. She read countless picture books and chapter books to me. Great works of literature, wonderful picture books with the art telling as much of the story as the written words, biographies, historical fiction, etc. were on our reading lists.
Since I was homeschooled, there were even more opportunities to read books. That fun chapter book about a girl on the Oregon trail suddenly was able to count for school. We loved it!
When I finally started to read on my own, it was wonderful! I was able to reading many more books than I could before. As the years have gone by, I went from reading Nancy Drew and Winnie-the-Pooh to reading books by Jamie Langston Turner and Jane Austen. With each stage of reading, I liked to collect the books that I really loved. As my reading preferences grew more advanced, my book collection grew so that it now fills all six shelves, a large space under my window seat, and a huge box in my closet. And it's still growing! Now, I've had to stack books on top of the books on the shelves to use up as much space as possible.
