I don’t think I’ve read any books during my adulthood that brought me back to how much I loved reading — how I lived to read — when I was a child as much as Seanan McGuire’s.
As a child, I saw a copy of Watership Down with a starburst on the cover emblazoned with the words, “More than One Million Books Sold.
My child’s brain for one glorious moment interpreted that as one million -different- books.
One million sequels to Watership Down.
For that brief shining moment, I knew my purpose in life — I would spend my entire life reading sequels to Watership Down.
It was only a moment before I realized my mistake.
But oh what a moment.
So, as you see, I was a reader before I was a writer.
It was the lack of sequels to Watership Down, the lack of a seventh Redwall book (when I was eleven), and the lack of a sixth Chanur novel that forced me to become a writer.
If there’d been enough books that captured me the way those books did, all I’d have wanted from life was to read.
But I have struggled to find books I can fall that deeply into as an adult.
Then I joined a book group, and the first book we read was “Every Heart a Doorway.”
I was skeptical of “Every Heart a Doorway” at first. I’ve learned to be skeptical of most things. Adulthood is hard and makes one cynical.
But somewhere along the way… I just fell into reading Seanan McGuire’s books the way that I used to fall into books as a kid.
I’m up to book 11 of the October Daye series; have read all the “Every Heart a Doorway” series; scattered short stories; the Mira Grant “Alien” YA novel; Middlegame; and the first A. Deborah Baker release. I loved some more than others… but overall, I just want to read them all.
And it’s just so nice… so beautiful… to so simply want to read and to feel safe just disappearing into someone else’s words.