"When I was 10," wrote C.S. Lewis, "I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am 50 I read them openly."
We have memories of certain books or scenes from books that delighted our hearts or put fear into our dreams as children. Many of us have revisited those memories, as Lewis did. Sometimes we were able to shape those emotions, but often they lingered there to help develop an attitude about life or a foundation about human nature.Virginia Woolf calls such times "moments of being" and James Joyce titles them "epiphanies."
Autobiographies and biographies of many famous people suggest how books -- and book characters -- have made long-lasting impressions on their lives:
E.B. White as a child read classical fiction and poetry and was especially devoted to Longfellow. However, on one occasion when he was required to recite a poem, he could not control his tongue and instead of "Footprints on the sands of time," as Longfellow had written it, out came, "Footprints on the tands of sime." His embarrassment caused him never to read Longfellow again (and be certain that he would never appear on a platform again). He continued to be an avid reader throughout his life and in the last years, as his body grew weak, read and reread Thoreau's "Walden."
Early reading may influence the decisions that some people make in life. Actor Alan Alda recalls three books that had a strong effect on him. He read "Top Horse at Crescent Ranch" at age 8. "I immediately sat down and tried to write my own books about a horse. From then on I knew I wanted to write." "King Arthur and His Knights" was the second book he recalls. "I would read myself to sleep at night with the magic of Merlin and the decency and cleverness of the Knights of the Round Table. From then on I knew I wanted to be a magician." The third title is an unlikely choice for a 12-year-old. "For some reason, leather-bound copies of the goings-on in Congress ("The Congressional Record") lined the shelves of our living room and I pored over them. . . . I had never read anything so funny. From then on I knew I wanted to do comedy!"
Singer and artist Tony Bennett listed "Crime and Punishment," "The Magic Mountain" and any book by Charles Dickens as favorites. "Those authors and books . . . influenced me greatly in walking towards humanity, rather than walking away from it."
Educator Arthur Schlesinger Jr. attributes British writer G. Henty and French author Alexandre Dumas for giving him "an early and abiding passion for history." Then he adds "two writers who showed me the infinite excitement of the future -- Jules Verne and H.G. Wells."
"I began to read about Oz when I was 7 or 8," writes author Ray Bradbury. ". . . by the time I was 9, I lived most of the time in the Emerald City . . . Mr. Baum taught me how to begin to dream, to fantasize, to have fun with the images in my mind! The books of Jules Verne taught me how to live under the seas and up in the air, on the way to the moon, and do it with morality and with good taste and grand fun."
Maya Angelou read the poetry of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, but it was "A Tale of Two Cities" that introduced her impressionable mind to the "love of freedom." As a young girl she read Shakespeare's sonnets and "Hamlet" and "could barely understand the contents but could easily weep over the beautiful sound of the words read aloud."
In his autobiography "Why Not the Best?" past president Jimmy Carter wrote about his elementary school superintendent, Miss Julia Coleman, who prescribed a reading list with a promise to give a silver star for every five book reports and a gold one for every 10. One of the books on the list was "War and Peace." An excited 12-year-old thought he had chosen a book about cowboys and Indians but was appalled to learn it was 1,400 pages long and not about the Wild West at all! It turned out to be one of his favorite books, and he has read it two or three times since.
Another past president, Gerald Ford, also attests to the importance of reading as a child. He loved the Horatio Alger series. "While I was enjoying the individual stories, I also marveled over the successes made by boys who were not so different from me. . . . I absorbed the truth that there are almost no limits to the goals a person can reach with faith in himself and in God, a willingness to work toward those goals with determination and the perseverance to rise and try again when a defeat knocks you to your knees."
Bruce Jenner, an athlete with reading disabilities, read "The Babe Ruth Story," "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and an autobiography of Jim Thorpe. "These books told the story of men with admirable traits."
Professional golfer Lee Trevino said he had few books available to him in his home, but the Bible did leave an impression. "Many things that I read in it then are still with me in my later years."
"My mother read aloud to me Kipling and Dobie ('Coronado's Children')," said broadcast journalist Dan Rather. "That, in itself, led to their making impressions upon me at a very early age."
Early reading made George McGovern a compulsive reader later in life. "It has always been important to me to have a book at my bedside, in hotel rooms, on airplanes or trains, and on vacation."
No matter from what walk of life, books have been an influence on many popular people; authors, sports and media figures, politicians and artists. Most are quick to advise young people to attend to the reading they do and do a lot of it! Louis L'Amour said, "Once one discovers how much fun it can be to read one's life is never dull, and the interest grows with each book. Places you have never seen are known to you and are real, and you can walk in times far from yours, and when you wish, you can speak to the great minds of all ages."
On each future monthly Reading Page, the Deseret News will ask a prominent Utahn what turned him or her on to reading and which books they enjoyed as a child.