Just curious--did you grow up in a house full of various books

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Oh yes, I come from a long line of people (going back at least to my

maternal great-grandmother) who simply must read before falling asleep.

My father always had tons and tons of books, one ton, mostly theology and church history, in his office at the church (he was a Lutheran pastor) and another couple of tons at home. He especially liked to buy the Time-Life series on science and American history, the Horizon books on world history, and the National Geographic books about nature, history, and anthropology.

Both my parents had been schoolteachers at one point, and the year that I was in kindergarten, I was sick a lot, so they taught me to read so that I could amuse myself. I never stopped.