I had to pay my way through college.  So I worked a lot.  No sorority or (many) drunken college night’s for me.  No Siree.  I had three jobs at one time and picked up any pet or house sitting jobs that I could.  So when I was able to have downtime, I enjoyed being lazy by the pool.  (Who doesn’t, right?)  That’s when I discovered a joy of reading that I never had before.

It started with Thinner.  Then my roommate had just finished reading The Stand, Stephen King’s latest book.  Thinner was tiny (a mere 320 pages) compared to the 1100+ tome.  I had never read a book so big nor did I think it could capture and keep my attention for so long.  I decided it was going to be my summer’s goal.  At least it was loftier than getting a better tan.

I could remember that by the first 100 pages, I was hooked.  I never knew a book could be that engrossing nor have such scale.  It’s chilling, dark and in parts gruesome (all that you want from Stephen King), but it’s also a fantastical classic tale of good versus evil on the precipice of war because of a deadly flu-like virus.  The flu had rapidly spread and created an apocalyptic landscape where the survivors had to choose their side.  They either chose to follow an elderly, wise black woman (think the Oracle) to lead them to Boulder, Colorado or the dark man who is setting up camp in Sin City.  I’ll never forget staying up almost the whole night to know what happened to one of the characters.  That was likely my craziest college night.  I had to work the next day afterall.

I had never fallen in love like this.  It was all-consuming.  I ended up finishing the book in less than three weeks.  Then I dove into his other works like Pet Cemetery, IT, Misery and New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  I had never obsessed over an author before either!  It blew my mind that I finished six books over the summer.  To me at that time, that was an impossible feat, but well done.

Thanks to Stephen King, reading opened up my eyes to a whole new world.  I’m a pretty avid reader now (but left Stephen King in the 1990s), I participate in a book club, and typically read a book and a half a month.  That may not be much to some super readers out there, but it’s what’s doable for me.  I know when I don’t get that time to read, I really ache for it and miss it.  It’s become such an important part of me and a way that I like to recharge my batteries.  I really hope that my love of reading transfers to my children.  It would be one of my proudest accomplishments.

Thank you Stephen for that lovely summer and changing my life forever.  Cheers to you!

This post was written in conjunction with MamaKat’s Writers Workshop.

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