I worked in the library in college. It was a natural place for me to be. Even before working there I spent a lot of my free time wandering the stacks looking at books. That was how I found most of my favorite authors. I’d notice a book cover or a title and I’d pull the book off the shelf and take a look.
I discovered some amazing books this way and also read some real clunkers. I won’t mention them because talking badly about other authors’ work in a forum like this is in bad taste. I tend to forget about the bad books anyway. The books that fed my soul are the ones that last in my memory.
One day while browsing the library shelves I came across a book by Gloria Naylor called Mama Day. I read Mama Day so long ago that I can’t really tell you what it was about, but what is was about exactly wasn’t the most important aspect of the book to me. I’m a slow reader and I read that novel in a few days. It swept me away to another place. It sat me in the middle of the characters’ lives and let me experience something I would have never experienced otherwise.
That’s the power of books. They create worlds with words. They plunge you into new experiences. They help you see the world in a different way. As a child and young adult books carried me away from the cloak of sadness that hung over me. They inspired me to do something more with my life. They let me know that more was possible.
Authors like Gloria Naylor and so many others inspired me to write. They let me know that my voice was important too. For that I will always be grateful. [Tweet “Gloria Naylor will definitely be missed, but her spirit will live on through the words she wrote.”]
