Hi Erik. I've enjoyed listening to a couple of your podcast episodes with my husband. Your description of Herodotus makes it sound very appealing! I've also been in your bookstore once when we were travelling. This post makes me think it is a good time to reflect on influences in my reading life. My 5 beacons are as follows. 1)My parents and grandparents always bought me plenty of books and read nursery rhymes and stories to me from a young age. 2) My 3rd grade teacher, Miss Paine, loved reading, read stories after lunch, and gave us books as gifts. (She also left teaching to travel, which I think influenced my desire to travel the world.) 3.) Mrs. Madrid was my GT teacher in 5th and 6th grade. GT was a program that stood for gifted and talented. Back then, apparently, poetry was only for the gifted and talented! Anyway, Mrs. Madrid opened up a world of poetry to me and I believe my love of poetry began or at least was cultivated with her. 4.) My college Shakespeare professor, Dr. Walton, further opened up great poetry to me as well as Shakespeare. Poetry and Shakespeare are still great loves for me today. 5.) Finally, I am going to cite my Pastor, Pastor Martin, for encouraging and deepening my love of literature. He reinforced loves I already had (Flannery O'Connor, Shakespeare, and Lewis) and introduced me to more literary wonders in Waugh, Percy, the Space Trilogy, and others.
Hi Erik. I've enjoyed listening to a couple of your podcast episodes with my husband. Your description of Herodotus makes it sound very appealing! I've also been in your bookstore once when we were travelling. This post makes me think it is a good time to reflect on influences in my reading life. My 5 beacons are as follows. 1)My parents and grandparents always bought me plenty of books and read nursery rhymes and stories to me from a young age. 2) My 3rd grade teacher, Miss Paine, loved reading, read stories after lunch, and gave us books as gifts. (She also left teaching to travel, which I think influenced my desire to travel the world.) 3.) Mrs. Madrid was my GT teacher in 5th and 6th grade. GT was a program that stood for gifted and talented. Back then, apparently, poetry was only for the gifted and talented! Anyway, Mrs. Madrid opened up a world of poetry to me and I believe my love of poetry began or at least was cultivated with her. 4.) My college Shakespeare professor, Dr. Walton, further opened up great poetry to me as well as Shakespeare. Poetry and Shakespeare are still great loves for me today. 5.) Finally, I am going to cite my Pastor, Pastor Martin, for encouraging and deepening my love of literature. He reinforced loves I already had (Flannery O'Connor, Shakespeare, and Lewis) and introduced me to more literary wonders in Waugh, Percy, the Space Trilogy, and others.
That is wonderful. Thank you for sharing!
What a sweet tribute to all these people. I hope that random family chances on your writing!