About the author:
Eve Marie Mont lives with her husband, Ken, and her shelter dog, Maggie, in suburban Philadelphia, where she teaches high school English and creative writing. Free to a Good Home is her first novel.
Please check out the contest on Eve’s website for a chance to win a book club package of eight signed copies and a Skype call-in. Also, if you’d like to read a sneak preview, click here.
Read Dawn’s review of Free to a Good Home, and enter to win your own copy (through 7/20).
*****
First of all, thanks so much to Jennifer for inviting me to guest post on “On Reading.” When I was a child, our home was always filled with great books. My parents are both classicists and teachers, so the study of history and language was an integral part of our upbringing. But my parents were no intellectual snobs. They read Dr. Seuss along with the Greek myths, Winnie the Pooh along with the Bible. As we grew older, they shared with us their own beloved favorite books: Little Women and Nancy Drew for my mom, Sherlock Holmes and James Herriot for my dad.
I can attribute my love of reading today to the way I was taught to love and appreciate books as a child. And while my mother was the one who usually read us our bedtime stories, my dad was the one who took us to the library. Some of my fondest childhood memories take place at the Fox Chase Library, where my dad would leave us to our own devices for an hour or more while he went to look for his own books. I loved to explore the stacks, reading the blurbs on the back jackets, eyeing the fascinating covers, and adding to my stack until it was so high I eventually began bringing a bag.
It was there at my local library that I discovered “Choose Your Own Adventure” books and Sweet Valley High, Judy Blume and Lois Duncan, Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury, Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. To this day, whenever I dream about a library (and I really do dream about libraries), I conjure up the library of my childhood.
Even now, one of my favorite things to do is go to my local library and create a stack of at least six or seven books, then take them home and spread them all around me. My reward is to allow myself an hour in which to read the first chapter of each book, putting them in the order in which I want to tackle them. When I tell my students about this odd ritual, they think I’m a huge nerd, and of course, I am. But I don’t care—my love affair with books has been one of the most enduring and enriching of my life.
When I hear about budgets being slashed and libraries being closed all over the country, I am disheartened to think that some day, children might not have the opportunity I did to discover their passions and personalities in the pages of a library book. For now, I will continue to support and frequent my local library and hope that people never start believing libraries are frivolous non-essentials. I’d hate to live in a world that had forgotten that the best things in life—love, friendship, nature, and yes, reading—are truly free.
Dawn says
Eve, I couldn’t agree more! Our city’s public library is currently under construction, making the time between May and November the LONGEST six months we’ve ever experienced! We can still put books on hold online and pick them up in this tiny room in our community center, but how I miss just browsing the children’s section with my kids… it’s the best resource around.
Thanks for posting with us!
Eve Marie Mont says
I know–browsing is the best part!! It’s sometimes hard to believe we have access to free books. Thanks so much for your comment and your lovely review!
edj says
We live overseas where free libraries don’t exist–in fact, where libraries are rare. (At schools only, and you have to be going to that school to access it) My daughter in particular is one of those kids to whom reading is like breathing, but my boys like to read too. I remember walking into a small branch library during one of our summers in the US and the 3 kids shouting, “WHOA! LOOK AT ALL THOSE BOOKS!” I was both embarrassed and amused.
Eve Marie Mont says
It is hard to imagine a world without libraries. We are so lucky in so many ways here in the US. I think it’s so great that your kids were excited to see such a wealth of free books–not embarrassing at all!! Thanks so much for the comment!