"The Secret Garden." It was my first grown-up book. At the ripe old age of five, I picked up that red-velvet bound book and began to read. Granted, I had watched the movie dozens of times leading up to that, but so in love was I with the story of unloved Mary Lennox that I was determined to read the actual book.

I guess you could say it was the end and the beginning of everything.

After that, it was just a matter of what I could get my hands on. I probably couldn't tell you all of the books I have read over the past 15 years, and I'm positive I can't remember them all, even if they were laid before me. From classic English literature to the random science fiction, I have always enjoyed reading, with no general preference for this genre or that.

Most kids develop a love of reading much later in life, if they ever do, and I can vividly recall the taunts and jeers as I sat in the back of the classroom with a book opened beneath my desk. I remember being left out of conversations or forgotten entirely because I had to finish the chapter. To this day, my husband treads lightly when I am curled up in The Chair with a book, knowing it is far more difficult to pull me out than to sit and wait for me to finish.

Life as a reader hasn't always been easy, and I know I missed out on things that I would have liked to be a part of because of books. I know I can seem distant or even moody sometimes just because of something I am reading. And I will admit that some books have had to be abandoned altogether because they were negatively affecting me. But more often than not, books have made my life so much more than it would have been otherwise.

My dad once told me, "Reading well is not something just everyone does. Lots of people read. Not everyone takes something from it. Anyone who knows you well knows that you are far more than meets the eye. Part of your depth, your experience, and the person you are today is due in large part to the stories you've read. Good readers take a bit here and a bit there from the characters they meet, aspirations from places they've visited on the page, and use that to become a better person. Stories can do that, but only if we let them."

Much more than the obvious lessons I learned while reading a good book, I have become a better and more rounded human being from reading. Books have taught me about kindness and courage, evil and good. Books have shown me the right and the wrong way to handle life's situations (cough, cough, Juliet). Books have helped me travel and discover different cultures, and I no longer feel ignorant to the vast world I live in.

Virginia Woolf once said that Saint Peter will have nothing to offer us readers when we stand before God, saying that we need no reward, for we have loved books. We shall all stand there with a worn novel beneath our arm, perfectly content with the many lives we have lived through words and paper. It's a nice thought, but I think I might request a bigger bookshelf.