When I was eleven, my parents gave me the first book I ever owned — The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe.It was written by the famous novelist Edgar Allan Poe.I clearly remember opening it, reading the first lines of the book, and saying to myself，“So this is what reading is！”I was delighted.Little did I know at the time that I was at the beginning of a lifelong journey.
So, if I read my first real book at the age of eleven, what was I reading before then？In a word, these books are relatively plotless (没有情节的) and repetitive, and they attempt to teach children to recognize letters and their sounds and to build their vocabulary.But I still had no idea what writing was.In Poe's stories, the sentences were more complex and stylish than anything I had ever read before.
Poe, in short, was a start.My parents gave me that first book, but then I searched for other books.I liked science, which led me to discover Jules Verne and H．G.Wells.Other writers followed in quick one after another, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C．Clarke.But I didn't limit myself to science fiction.Other books that deeply impressed me, and which I have carried on my life's journey, include: The Yearling, Shane, Ivanhoe, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and The Good Earth.
It went on from there.I became that kid who, long after his parents turned the lights off, hid under the covers with a flashlight, a book, and his greatest fear of being discovered and having his flashlight taken away.I realized that my parents must have known I was defying them.But in their wisdom they pretended to ignore it.And so I owe my start as a reader to my parents.
