I used to hate to read. The first book that I enjoyed was Jack London’s The Seawolf.
As a youth, the book had to have pictures. Hardy Boys was one of my first ventures into “real reading.” Big whoop!
I see that The Call of the Wild is being redone, don’t know if it is in theaters or on TV.
Reading has always been a problem for me too.
My father, my wife, my sister, my daughter--all read constantly and love reading fiction. (My father would read anything!) But my mother, my son, and I don't.
My mother inherited a wonderful collection of books from her parents. My father read them all. My mother didn't.
My sister read them all. She once said to me: "I'd much rather read a book that watch a movie." She got a job in a book store so she could read all the books.
My wife reads contemporary fiction constantly.
I have always envied these people.
My wife pointed out that I read all the time--just not fiction very much, not contemporary fiction, mostly nonfiction and mostly on the internet.
At her suggestion, I read some books by Greg Iles and a few other contemporary writers. I liked Iles' Sleep No More.
But it's as difficult for me to read a popular novel--or a classic novel like Ivanhoe--as it is something like The Sound and the Fury or a technical text, such as a medical journal.
I have read wonderful things, and I loved them, but the words and images don't flow for me like they do for my wife, my sister, and my father.
Many times, I've gotten interested in a subject or a single work and studied it, but it was hard work. I did this with King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, William Faulkner, Scott Fitzgerald, African American History, a number of things. I loved it all, but it was not an easy flow. I wish it were.
I've wondered if I have something like dyslexia.
The world seems to be divided between readers and non-readers.
Any suggestions, anybody?