With All My Heart

Until quite recently, my mom wouldn't let me read except for school. I know that sounds stupid, but to understand her purpose, you have to know why first. Before I could even talk, I fell in love with books. I looked at the pictures, and made up the words myself. As I got into school, my mom realized that when I read, I disappeared from reality. She would scream at me and I wouldn't even notice. Reading was my escape into a magical world. So my mom took away all my books except the number of my age, and sold them. Every year for my birthday I would get lots of presents. But the coolest one that I always looked forward to, was a book. By the time I was 16, I had 16 books. If I sold a book, I could replace it with another. When I was 17 my boyfriend took me to a public library for the first time. I had never been to a public library except at school. It was amazing! Four floors of books! I was in Heaven. That night I came home with a ticket into that Heaven-like place: a library card. Unfortuantly, for some reason my mom got very mad at me. She took it and cut it up. She said she didn't want me to go there because books would expose me to too much trash, and I would never do anything but read. So the next day, my boyfriend took me back to the library, and paid for me to get a new one. I checked out many, many books. By the time I turned 18, my mom was cool with me reading for fun. She realized that I really love it. And I really, truly do!