I was potty trained with 'the bird book'. I would sit on my parents lap while they got it done in the bathroom and flip through the pages looking at birds. My favorite was The Kingfisher. I've still never seen one in real life but, I can to this day see that page in my head. I still own the original book. I think reading on my iPad is starting to give me tendinitis because its so heavy but I'm still reading on it.

My favorite book ever is The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi . I think there is a 90% chance it's why I ended up at sea for a living. I also think it was my first taste of adventure.

I read the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy....twice. I know, I know!

I had to read Hamlet in high school - and I hated it. I didn't get it, at all. I was a total biatch to my high school teacher. I mean, I was such a biatch that I still feel guilty about it.

My Grandma taught me to read the summer before I went to Kindergarten. She got a copy of The Ugly Duckling - she wrote every word in the book on a piece of paper and then I had to match the words to the ones in the book. That same summer I learned how to tie my shoe laces and skip. I learned to read faster than I learned to skip.

I read copious amounts of trashy romance novels. I mean copious. I have to literally force myself sometimes to take a break from the smut and read quality.

I could spend ALL DAY in Powells in Portland. When I go there now I know that I need to devote at least an afternoon or I'll leave feeling bummed.

I own a lot of books and pay for a storage unit in Hawaii that's climate controlled specifically for those books. It would kill me if they succumbed to the tropics. Some of the books at my family's home have been completely eaten through by termites. It's awful.

In Elementary the Scholastic Book Fair was my favorite. My Mom always let me order something.

In Fifth grade I was on the Newbery Quiz Bowl Team. We made it our mission to read all the Newbery Medal books.

My friend Melissa told me I had to read the book Molokai by Alan Brennert - especially since my Dad had lived in Kalaupapa. She loaned me her copy and I started it that same night. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. I'd never cried like that while reading a book.

Nautie Books makes me really happy. If for no other reason that it forces me to read 'non-smut'. Mostly, I love it because it lets me talk books with friends.

I remember signing up and receiving my first library card at the Downtown Hilo Library. I especially remember signing the back in cursive. Here's some history for ya.

I have a lot of books on my shelf that I've never read...or started to read and couldn't finish. A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Marquez is one of them.

When I graduated from Maine Maritime Academy I didn't split right away and instead stayed for the summer to cruise on The Schooner Bowdoin. My favorite memory of the trip? Sitting in the galley shoulder to shoulder in front of the stove with Captain Chase reading to us from Salt-Water Poems and Ballads by John Masefield. I later found a used copy at Powells. It's hands down one if my most prized possessions.

I'd really like to read Moby Dick. I always get bogged down and set it aside.

When I was in intermediate I really liked reading about The Holocaust.

I read Gone With The Wind in sixth grade. Looking back, I'm pretty sure that wasn't an age appropriate read.

I wrote and illustrated a book in the third grade. I can't really remember what it was about. Something to do with bears coming alive at night. Anyways, on the back 'about the author page' I made stuff up that I thought would make me seem cool. I think I wrote that I really liked to eat green apples....ummm what?

I'm gonna read Anna Karenina this next time at work....even if it kills me...then I'm gonna watch the movie so I can speak intelligently about it.

It really chaps my craw that although I read so often and can identify a grammatically correct sentence I can't write one. I have NO idea where a comma belongs in the pervious sentence. I find it mortifying.

Lastly, I didn't read Novembers Pick, Gone Girl. I feel really, really guilty about it. Twenty pages in I decided I hated it. I am going to do my ultimate best to give it another go.

This post was inspired by Amy. It's nice knowing there are people out there who feel the same way as I do about books.