Who Was Your Biggest Influence?

I'm a firm believer that readers are made, and not born that way. I think that while everyone has the capacity to become a reader, those who get a appropriately timed nudge in that direction generally grow up to read more as adults. It's like Nature v. Nurture, but with books. (Could this be the newest literary mash-up?)

For me, there are two different people who I credit as being my reader influences. One that I have always been aware of and one that only recently was brought to my attention by someone else.

Freshman year of high school, I had this English teacher. We'll call her Mrs. Hoffman, because I think that was her name or a close variation of it. Sad that she's one of my greatest influences and I can't remember her name. I guess this is why she is my obvious influence, because she is remembered for what she did and not who she was.

Anyway, Mrs. Hoffman was unlike any English teacher I ever had. She's still remembered as my favorite teacher of all time. She tried to take what was allowed through the curriculum and presented it as examples of the many different types of books we could read. With her, it wasn't just stuffy classics. And when it was, she made sure we realized that they were just older than the books written today. She used them as examples of genre, instead of trying to convince us that they were the only books that mattered. Sure, she forced met to read Beowolf (which I hated) but she also had us read Dante's Inferno (epic poetry), Romeo & Juliet (play), And Then There Were None (mystery), and many more.

She made it clear that the "classics" weren't a genre, but a classification of books in many genres. While we may dislike a certain book, that doesn't mean we dislike classics, it means we may not love that particular genre. She taught that not every person is going to love every book. We weren't expected to enjoy everything. We were allowed to state why we thought a book was horrible and she told us our opinions were valid. Her opinion was that no one loves all the classics. You can't. They're too varied. If someone claims that they love the classics, that they are the only books that a worthy of reading, then they are pretentious. And probably lying. That was a concept that effected my 14 year old self beyond anything else throughout my schooling.

My other major (albeit stealthy) influence was my grandmother. She never forced me to read. She never even suggested I read. She just sat there with her own book by her side, every waking minute. She told others to leave me alone because I was reading. She made it known that my reading was important without ever saying anything directly. She set the example, I followed and she defended it against those who didn't value it. And I never noticed.

Last month, I mentioned to my mother that I was interviewing a particular author that one of her coworkers adores. I told her to ask said coworker if she had any questions she's like me to include in the interview. My mother took this as an excuse to mass email everyone she's ever met. She was bragging. It was cute.

After receiving her email, one of my much older cousins emailed me. She said how proud my grandmother would have been of me, since she was such a book lover herself. This floored me. I had forgotten the book always by my grandmother's side. I had forgotten lying on her couch for hours every day after school reading my book while she sent my brother into another room so I could concentrate. I had forgotten because she didn't make a big deal out of it. I learned through example.

I wish I could go back and tell these two woman how much there influence shaped my life for the better. Without them, I would probably think reading is what you do in the bathroom since there is no television in there. Just like the rest of my family thinks.

Who were your biggest reading influences? What did they do that help you to discover a love of reading?

Stephanie's response @ Curling Up by the Fire