When did your love for reading start? I can remember a moment, a place, and a book that cemented it for me.
THE PLACE: The Atlantic City Free Public Library
The Atlantic City Library was not the closest library to me, but it was the biggest. Once I got my driver’s license, I would tackle my anxiety about being behind the wheel almost weekly to take myself there.
It was a massive concrete building with large round columns in the front. Back then you still had to use the card catalog to find what you were looking for. That card catalog was an enormous wall of tiny square drawers meticulously arranged. I never bothered using it. Instead, I’d like to peruse the shelves.
There were two floors of bookshelves crammed full of books, books on top of books on top of books. It was amazing. Those shelves contained the world. I had my favorite sections: fiction, of course, writing, of course, and photography.
I spent so much time sitting on the dingy gray carpet in those sections with stacks of books next to me waiting to be read.
THE MOMENT: Discovering That One Book then Reading the Last Page
I was browsing the fiction section, running my fingers along the smooth book spines when one caught my eye. The bright fluorescent cover grabbed me. When I pulled it out to examine it, I saw an abstract image the man dancing. I knew I had to read that book.
Have you ever read the final paragraph in a book and realized that something inside you had changed? Once I finish that book the world around me had shifted and what I wanted from a book was different. I knew I would never be the same.
THE BOOK: Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
When I was drawn to the bright cover and the title of that book I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t read the blurb before checking it out of the library. Surprises can sometimes be good.
What I discovered when I shut myself in my bedroom and began to read was a world unlike anything I’d ever imagined before. The story didn’t only take place in another country; it took place in a completely different world. The eeriness moved me. When I finished, I knew I had to read every book Haruki Murakami had ever written.
The funny thing is now that I’ve read every one of his books, Dance Dance Dance isn’t even one of my favorites, but it will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the first time I read a book that felt like it was written especially for me.
