A Reader

I’ll tell you how it happened to me. I was about seven years, maybe eight. In those days, one set of grandparents lived a block away and the other set two blocks. I had been sent to the grandparent’s house a block away on Napoleon St. Some called the street St. Napoleon St. although my dad always doubted that man could have been a saint.

It was just me and my Grandma. Grandpa worked on the railroad and was away on a trip. There was no TV and the only electronic entertainment was a big old radio mounted on a shelf in the hall. It was perpetually tuned to NBC radio. I was out of my mind with boredom. I was on the bed in the “boys” room. Finally, I fixed on a small shelf on the opposite wall. It couldn’t have been more that eighteen inches long but it was filled with books. I got up and walked over. The books were dusty as if they had not been moved in a while. They were all hard bound but like the Readers’ Digest book of the month club binding. Nothing special.

With absolutely nothing else to do, I studied the titles and selected one. I lay back on the bed and opened the cover. At that point, I can most assuredly tell you that my life changed. Whatever it might have been, it could no longer be. I fell into that book and became a READER. I read that book cover to cover that first day. I wanted more. I found out where the library was on Laurel St and went there. I read every book that author had written. It was more than thirty books. I read pretty much every volume in the adventure and science fiction section of the library and then started on books on science.

Reading and being a READER can change your life. It changed mine. Oh, that first book? What was it? It was the original Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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About vrmayhalljr

Van R. Mayhall Jr. is the senior partner in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana law firm where he practices corporate and business law and handles selected litigation. Born and raised in Baton Rouge, he was educated at Louisiana State University and Georgetown University. He and his wife, Lorri, have three grown children and enjoy boating on Lake Pontchartrain.
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