"Reading the World" - From Randy Carr: Reflections in the Mirror

As far back as I can remember, I have been a voracious reader.  I have read myself to sleep many a night curled up holding a book.  I was introduced to the kid's section of our local library fairly soon after I learned to read.  I checked out the books often.  As I got older, I devoured the mysteries of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

To put it simply, I have always loved getting lost in a story.

In fourth grade, I was designated to read a story aloud at the end of class every day.  The first story I read was Charlotte's Web.  I'm not sure if I was chosen because I had a great reading voice, or if it was the fact that I was accustomed to reading aloud.  As a family, we quite regularly read the Bible, either before or after supper.  I often read the passage aloud.  I doing so, I tackled unfamiliar words with a certain amount of aplomb.  Without knowing it, I guess I was garnering a bit of linguistic acuity.  Unfamiliar words didn't intimidate me.  I also didn't mind reading aloud.  Loudly!

It was at some point in my preteen years that my parents made a purchase that had to be outside of the budget.  It was costly, but it handed me the world.  Literally!  They bought a set of World Book Encyclopedias.

I poured over each volume of the encyclopedias.  At times, I was intentional and systematic in perusing one particular book in the set.  At other times, my search was just hit and miss.  But, before Google existed, encyclopedias were the centralized place to go for quick and concise information.  And I landed there often.

Without leaving our house, the encyclopedia was my window to the rest of the world.  I traveled to exotic and faraway places.  I read about and reenacted historical events in my mind.  And, I was exposed to a countless number of wide-ranging topics.  So, with a growing desire to travel, and a propensity for hands-on learning, the World Book Encyclopedia was the next best thing for a land-locked young boy.  It was my "passport" because it exposed me to the world - well before I ever received my first government issued passport.  

Even though my family never physically travelled more than a couple of hundred miles from our home, nearly every day I went somewhere else - in my mind.  Whether it was near or far, the World Book Encyclopedias tied together my love for reading and my quest for learning.  They also primed my pump to be curious and consider visiting places that I had dreamed about - through reading.

God used my parents - without them even knowing it.  They introduced me to God's world.  Without ever leaving our living room, a seed of curiosity got planted, and grew within me.  Deeply.  And, I am very thankful for it.

Oh, and by the way, in case you want to know, I still love to read.  I am almost always in the middle of a book.  And, thanks to Kindle, my wife is a lot happier.  Why?  Because a line-item in our budget has now been drastically reduced.  

"Reading the World" is the eleventh written portrait from Randy Carr's collection called Reflections in the Mirror: Looking Back to See Ahead - 1954-1987.