I was an active kid—which is a gross understatement.

Climbing fifty foot trees by age six, building forts in the open field across the street from our home dawn to dusk, playing football, baseball, basketball and any other sport they threw at me …

Didn’t leave a lot of time for reading.

Till the day my mom announced I would read half an hour a day before I went to sleep.

It took about a week of fighting the idea (and grinding through my 30 minutes) before I was hooked.

Then the battle became getting me to turn my light off.

“C’mon, Mom! I gotta finish this chapter.”

By the time she came back in, I’d finished that chapter and was half way through the next. I’d try the same pitch as above and sometimes she agreed. I’m guessing a part of her was saying, “I can’t believe it worked, what’s the big deal if he reads a little longer? It’s a good thing for him.”

And it was. Sports books, fantasy, comic books, biographies, sci-fi, theology … I chewed them all up, and when I found a book I loved, sleeping and eating were unwelcome distractions at best.

Without that passion for reading I’m not sure the passion for writing would have been born. (So thanks, Mom, you’re awesome.)

Do you have that kind of passion for reading? Duh, of course you do. I’m guessing you wouldn’t be reading this kind of blog if you didn’t. But talk to me. What do you love about reading?

Being taken away to another world so completely you forget where you are?

Discovering emotions you might not have known you had that are stirred up?

Reading something you’ve always felt but have never been able to put into words?

Has a book changed your life?

Why do you love to read?