Just me and all my furbabies.
Clockwise from top right: Wallace, Rygel, Edgar and Sallie, Thatcher, Morty (and Edgar again)
Some of my fondest memories were of my mother reading to me each night. We didn't read Goodnight Moon, oh no. We tackled books like The Jungle Book, Call of the Wild, Black Beauty, Aesop's Fables, and The Swiss Family Robinson. Hefty tomes in hardcovers that weren't going to be anywhere close to completion before my six-year-old self fell asleep, night after night. My mother is no longer with me, but my love of books is her legacy.
Growing up, I spent many an hour in the library. Whether it was the steps of the reading well in my elementary school or the faded linoleum of the public library, I learned to appreciate, and even crave, the biblichor of these places. I could spend hours in the aisles touching book after book. When I was about a bit older, my parents moved us into my great-grandparent's house, where I grew up with one of the local library branches almost literally in my backyard. At home, my bookshelf was already filled to the brim. I couldn't wait for the elementary book fair to come so I could add something new to my collection. Vacations were an excuse to visit the campground store to peruse the racks and find a new treasure. When I ran out of reading material, I occasionally would sneak into my older brother's room to rifle through his pick-your-own adventure books and fantasy novels, most especially his Robert Asprin books.
In my pre-teen and teen years, my love of reading took a more macabre turn. What can I say - I grew up in the era of 80's B horror movies. I wanted that same feel in the pages I turned. I read dismal Shakespearean tragedies...for fun. R.L. Stine, Diane Hoh, and Christopher Pike started to slowly take over my bookcase, edging out the sweet pastels of my childhood. I loved these stories with their bright, garish covers and splattered blood fonts. Monsters, both classic and human, spooks, and spirits were my companions on rainy Sunday afternoons. While I enjoyed the jump scares of cheesy film horror, there was nothing like vividly imagining the fear inside the words of a good horror novel.
That love of chills and thrills has stayed with me to this day. However, my reading ebbs and flows through multiple genres. I'm still searching for a book that will have me afraid to turn off the lights, but I will also pick up an occasional historical romance or SFF. My heart truly lies in horror and urban fantasy though, combining my love for things that go bump in the night with the fairy tale happy ever after...or not.
Cats Luv Coffee Book Reviews is the culmination of a lifetime of reading with the added bonus of helping promote authors and their creations.
Cats Luv Coffee Book Reviews is the culmination of a lifetime of reading with the added bonus of helping promote authors and their creations.
Along with posting here at Cats Luv Coffee, I can also be found occasionally reviewing horror on Ginger Nuts of Horror and paranormal romance on Wicked Cool Flight.
🐾Valerie
My Boogeyman 1998-2020
