I love to read

For many many years I have gotten real enjoyment from reading.  I know my mom read a lot of novels and my dad always had something he was reading too.  I remember that my Grandpa Dickson liked to read as well.  I can remember in elementary school when I was learning to read.  We used some sort of reading module curriculum where you worked at your own pace.  If you finished one module, you got to go to the next higher module.  Each module got harder.

When I think of reading for pleasure, my first memories are of reading the Hardy Boys series.  Frank and Joe Hardy were the teenage sons of a private investigator and always managed to get caught up in some kind of caper that required them to use their budding sleuthing skills.  We have the whole series down in the basement, but I'm not sure if any of our kids ever got into them.  Any of you grandkids can borrow them anytime you like.  I also remember reading fictional stories about baseball and other sports, and I read a biography about my favorite baseball player, Willie Mays.

During high school I got interested in Mark Twain.  I think I read most of his books.  I loved the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  I though Mark Twain was really funny with his dry satirical humor.  His travel books like Innocents Abroad and others were also fun to read.  I also developed an enjoyment for some of the well-known 20th Century authors like John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger, and others.

In my college years, I remember reading all of James Harriot's books in the All Creatures Great and Small series.  I loved reading about his adventures as a veterinarian in the rural Yorkshire Dales of England.  He was a great storyteller and had a way of making you feel like you were there witnessing his adventures first hand.  He also had a great sense of humor.

I have read many of the books written by Dick Francis.  His mysteries always had something to do with the horse racing industry in England.  I like Clive Cussler and all of his Dirk Pitt adventures.  Dirk Pitt was a mans man and could rescue any damsel in distress or save the world from any environmental disaster just in the nick of time.  Other authors of fiction that I enjoy include Michael Crichton,  James Patterson, Robin Cook, Johnathon Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, and others.

I also enjoy reading nonfiction.  The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey is one of my favorite books of all times.  I like David McCullough and his historical books.  I have read books about leadership, about science, about history, about religion, and many other topics.

And of course, I have read the scriptures nightly for as many years as I can remember.  I have probably read The Book of Mormon the most, followed by The New Testament and The Doctrine and Covenants.  I believe that regular reading of the scriptures helps me be a better person and helps my days go better.

I have had too many hours of enjoyment from reading to count them all.  I hope you will learn to like reading and start to read books for fun as soon as you are able.  Learning to read is not easy, but it is one skill that is well worth acquiring.