Bookalicious Tuesdays - A peek into my childhood as a reader

This post is not the regular 'Bookalicious Tuesdays' post, because, I'm not doing any book review, instead I'm taking you through my growing up years ... let us talk about my 'romance with books'.

In the early years of a person's life, parents (family) and school plays a huge role. I was blessed with a set of parents who bought us lots of books. AJ (My dad) used to get books back from his trips abroad, because, in India, back in the 80's, we didn't have access to so many good books. I remember, our parents, never forced us to read, both mom and dad, as well as my older sister used to read and it just became a part of my life. In fact one of the TV shows we were totally excited about was Faerie Tale Theatre, which used to come on DD on Sundays, the other favorite was Jungle Book (both are based on BOOKS).

I started reading pretty early, imitating my older sister. I took all her books, all her books became 'OUR' books when I was born. So basically a lot many days from my childhood were spent surrounded with books.

I spent early years of my childhood in La Martiniere Girls school, Lucknow. Reading was a part of our daily school life. I did a lot of theatre in school, and when we were younger, a lot of our plays were based on famous books. 

As I grew, my love for books became stronger. I was never told 'Don't you have anything better to do?'  My demands for books always met with a big 'YES'. You know what I used to do when I got my books, smell through the pages. I love the smell of a new book. I still do that... as I rip apart the package the first thing I do is smell the pages.

I married someone who loved reading as much, he introduced me to some of his favorites, which were Awesome, and which became one of the best I have read. The Kite Runner, Tuesdays with Morrie, Not Penny More Not Penny Less... the list goes on.

After becoming a mum, what I found again, was  how much I love Picture Books and how I have missed them in all these years. Since, I can't become a child again, I decided... 'what the hell' why do I have to be a child again to fall in love with Picture books. I fell in love with picture books one page at a time, as I explored them with Z. That is when I started MLCB.