“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”– Charles W. Eliot

I have always loved to read. It’s a passion that my mother instilled in me from an early age. I read voraciously as a child, and I still do today.

Reading has always been a passion in my family. I have memories of taking family trips to bookstores- my parents and my brother and I. We’d split up in different directions, each heading towards a subject or area that interested us. When we met up again, usually we all found a book we wanted.

A lot of those bookstores are gone now, a fact which saddens me. We’ve become a family of eReaders now. The love of readings is the same, though. Our passion for books hasn’t faded. We simply read them a different way now.

For many years now, my mother and I have read the same type of books. We have a group of favorite authors that we always read, and also love to discover new authors.

We live about 900 miles apart now so we only see each other a handful of times a year. When we do, we always swap books. I give her the ones I have bought over the past few months and she gives me the ones she’s bought. Now we swap them on our e-readers. When we talk on the phone each week, part of the conversation is always about what we’re reading, which authors have new books out, or a good deal we found on an eBook.

This shared love of reading and love of books is something that bonds us. It’s not the only thing, but it is a significant one.

I  think it is invaluable for writers to always be readers as well. I read to see how stories are structured, how characters are developed, how other writers portray relationships, tension, conflict, how they write dialogue, how they describe scenes. I take it all in, and I learn something from everything I read.

It makes me a better writer, and I am so grateful to my mother for igniting my passion for reading at an early age.