I'm A Child of the Library, A Protest Song

Honor Harrington and Me: A Love Affair

Books filled my house as a child.  So did science fiction and fantasy.  (Every year, regular as clockwork, my Dad read The Hobbit to me and my younger brother.)  So, naturally, I became a great reader.  I read a lot, and I read fast.  And, in elementary school, oh joy of joys, I discovered the public library, which was only two blocks away from my parents' business.  You can see where this is going, right?  I started devouring the books there.  But, you know, they had a strict limit on how many books you can check out at a time (only twenty!  the horror, the deprivation!), and I read fast and constantly, and YA books are usually pretty short.  So one day, the librarian (who knew me quite well by then) took me over to the adult (grown-up, not porn, get your minds out of the gutter) section of the library and showed me the science fiction section, particularly the Star Trek novels all on the same shelf.  I was probably just starting middle school, by that point; it's one of the clearest memories I have of childhood, that glorious moment when I saw all those books I had never read, and all of them so much bigger--i.e. more-to-read--than the YA and children's books.  It was awesome.

I started out with the Star Trek books, already being a fan of the series.  Once I'd read all of those, I started expanding.  And one of my first finds was Honor Harrington.  (The series as DRM-Free multiformat e-books)

I was in love. Here was a female character like me, with whom I could identify!  ( Why Honor Harrington is Awesome )