memory: books

What I remember is libraries. Bookshelves. Stories. I can still see the libraries and the bookstores I went to when I was growing up. I can remember the bookshelves in the houses where I lived. I can't remember much else of anywhere growing up, but I can remember all of the places with books.

The only librarian I remember very clearly is the school librarian from my grade school. I spent a lot of time with her. I would go to the library instead of the gym at recess when it was raining. I went to the library almost every day after school when I was in the fourth and fifth grades. The library was a safe place for me.

I used to love summer, because it meant I could read as long as I wanted to. I remember the first time I stayed up past midnight reading a book. It was "Little House on the Prairie."

I used to read walking to and from school. I read every chance I could get. I could escape into a book. If I was reading, everything around me would get quiet, it was like I wasn't there any more.

Then I got older, and sometimes the stories in a book weren't enough. So I made my own stories. I made stories so I could fall asleep. Those were the first stories I made, when I was still little. Then I made stories that I wrote down, but mostly, they were just a way to keep notes for the stories I told in my head. Writing them down helped to keep the stories more real.

I still read. When I read a book, I can remember the other times I read the book. I can remember holding the books; I love the feel of books. I love the smell of books. Nothing feels so safe as to have a whole stack of books I haven't read yet, plus another stack of books I have read over and over. A book is the safest place I can think to be. Sure, sometimes bad things happen in books. But the ones that I like to read, the ones where I can really escape, nothing STAYS bad. It's always all right in the end. Even when things are hard in the middle, mostly the people I care about in the books make it through all right.

Other people might remember other things, but all I remember is reading.

I don't really have a name, but the little kids call me the story girl, because that's what I do. I don't even really have an age; sometimes I'm pretty little, like about nine, and other times, I'm a teenager. I guess it depends on who needs to get away the most. The others read, too, but I'm the one who lets them really escape between the covers of a book.