I owe a special debt to my mother who introduced me to reading. It was through her guidance and example that reading came to play such a significant role in my life, forming both habits of mind and habits of the heart. One expects, of course, an English teacher to enjoy reading, but I would like to explain more fully how books have shaped my life.

When I was yet a very little person, books constituted a central feature of my moral education, as is the case for most of us. Reading and loving fables with their virtue-rewarded and evil-punished frameworks and fairy tales with their enchanted castles, fearsome monsters, and beautiful damsels, I learned valuable lessons about perseverance, imagination, humility, and kindness.

Books also play a significant role in directing our emotional lives. John Irving#'s “The World According to Garp” introduced me to my husband. This novel, that we happened to be reading at the same time, gave us something to talk about at our workplace and grew to be a kind of private shorthand between us. The novel led to other kinds of conversations and became, in time, the beginning of our own love story, a not uncommon plot twist. (I remain very grateful to Mr. Irving.)

Books have more or less influenced the way I think about everything - from relationships with friends and family, to the kind of person I think I am or would like to be, to how I respond to life#'s uncertainties.

The good books we have read, our favorite authors, come back to us again and again, touch and nudge us, and share liberally their wisdom. The very best ultimately transform our lives.

Anne Weed

Weed is a professor of English at Keuka College