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A Book that Changed the Direction of My Life

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By Mary Hill


Jenni at Story of My Life has launched a month-long blogging challenge. Today’s prompt asks that you describe where or what you come from. The people, the places, and/or the factors that make up who you are.  Reading has been a major force in my life that has guided and molded me through the years.

  I was only 13 roaming the stacks at a small library in  Northridgeville, Ohio.  It was 1981, and I wanted something fun to read which had a main character who was about my age. I read the spines of the books until I came to the Smiths. I pulled out a book by Betty Smith and a beautiful cover leapt out at me. Not the cover posted here but another one with a tall tree and buildings and a girl that looked my age. It was a large book, but I picked it up anyway and read the first page.   

I flipped through it.  I so identified with Francis Nolan and her daily struggles with poverty. The car company had just reposed our car because we could not afford it anymore. We didn’t even have money for Christmas that year. We weren’t far from struggling for bread to eat too. My parents did not want to get food stamps. 

I kept reading amd found the section in chapter two where she goes to the library. The librarian was unfriendly and always recommended the same books, but Francis did not let that deter her. She decided to read a book every single day of her life.

“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.”

 I did not finish this book on my first reading. It took more than 12 years for me to find another copy and I read every page of the novel.  This second reading came at a time that I was looking for inspiration. I was a newspaper reporter but wanted a better paying job that helped others.  I was thinking about graduate school and wondering what I wanted to major in when I read about the librarian again. She saddened me, but I wanted to be her. I would give Francis so many books to read and explore. I decided to go to library school after reading this book and become a school librarian.

I will have to put it on my list of books I want to read again. Do you have a book that changed your life in a significant way? Share and join this month’s blog challenge at : http://storyofmylifetheblog.blogspot.com.

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  2. Its amazing how much books really do affect us. I think the first book I remember checking out at the library was “Where the Wild Things Are”. To this day I remember the feel of the pages and the smell of the glue it was bound with. I still love that book and like reading it to my kids.

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  6. Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog 🙂 I love that you wrote about books! I took stacks of books home from the library every week growing up, so I totally relate to this!

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