Cliff Notes? Bah.

I love reading. Mom taught me when I was very small, and I still remember the book I learned from, Mi Libro Magico. In fact, we still have a copy. Mom says that soon after her first lesson, I carried it over to her and ask for another one. And another. And another. Apparently, I was pretty obsessed with being able to read. My brothers and parents had lots of books all over the place, and I distinctly remember someone saying "No, you can't look at it. You can't even read yet." So I had incentive. According to my parents, I took to reading in Spanish very quickly and was immediately able to carry it over to English. And so a book junky was born at the ripe age of 3.

I still remember (hazily) reading to myself out loud. Kind of wish there was video of it, I'm sure it sounded funny. Understand, I didn't exactly have a speech impediment, but I have always been a fast talker, and when I was a kid I spoke at the speed of light, so fast that half the time I would trip up on my own words and would lapse into a frustrated string of stutters. Add to that an accent that was some kind of amalgamation of Spanish/British/Unknown, and it's no wonder I was put in speech therapy when I entered school. I've watched videos of me as a kid, and half the time I have no clue what I'm saying. At any rate, I know it annoyed my brother Mel. One day he turned to me in the living room while we were sitting on the Lazy Boy and said, "Either read to yourself or stop reading." I think I was 4, and the concept of reading quietly to myself blew me away. It was like getting to skip the middle man, and it allowed me to read so much faster. I'm grateful that my bro introduced such a key concept.