Reading

As an elementary school student I read a lot—The Boxcar Children, The Hardy Boys, The Work and the Glory, you name it and I read it. My brothers used to tease me because even though I really liked to play sports and was generally pretty good at them, I often preferred to read a book in my bedroom by myself rather than go outside to play. Sometimes when people would interrupt my reading I would be upset. Once I reached junior-high age or so, I stopped reading books as much for my personal enjoyment. I started reading textbooks and doing homework until, by the time I was in high school, I don’t think I read any books other than school books and scriptures. That’s how it is now as well. I rarely find time to read all that I’m supposed to for my classes from textbooks and journals, so I don’t make time to read other books either.
Because I read so many books as a child, it’s difficult to pick a favorite. At the time, though, my favorite may likely have been The Work and the Glory series or The Kingdom and the Crown series. Both are written by the same author, Gerald Lund, and have similar historical fiction flavors with adventure, triumph and tragedy woven into very real occurrences of the past. The Work and the Glory takes place in the early first half of the 1800’s in connection with the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. These books follow a fictional family that participates in many nonfictional events in church history. Similarly, The Kingdom and the Crown follows a fictional family through significant religious events, but the timeframe is Christ’s mortal ministry and the setting is The Holy Land. I liked both of these series because they were fun and exciting to read, they had distinct characters who had realistic strengths and weaknesses, and I learned a lot of real stories surrounding church history and the Savior’s life that I had not known before. Learning these stories helped me learn truth and discover what I believe more fully. They helped me have a richer context when I read my scriptures as well so that I could understand the words of God more fully. I think that in adolescence I had strongly identified myself with my religious beliefs. Maybe these books made me feel like I better understood who I was.