Me and my Books

I started reading at the ripe old age of 3. No, I'm not trying to brag here, I have pretty darn good memory. My first movie experience was Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird
(1985). I was just about to turn 2 years old. But I digress.

Christian fiction has always been my favorite genre. My first Christian novel was Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly. I remember this b/c I had trouble reading it due to the "prairie grammar". I couldn't understand it! Granted I was 7 at the time. Other than the "language barrier", I had become hooked. I was reading other stuff at the time, more age-level appropriate Baby Sitter Club and Nancy Drew books, but I enjoyed reading adult Christian fiction more than anything. Early (and still today) favorites were Janette Oke, Gilbert Morris, Angela Hunt, and Frank Peretti. I loved historical and biblical fiction. Some adults didn't believe I could read and fully understand the books though. My third grade Sunday School teacher didn't believe that I had read all of "A Woman Named Damaris" after we had discussed the bible story in class. She hadn't finished the book therefore I couldn't have. Some adults are just slow readers. I can't help that. Oh yeah, I read extremely fast too. On a non busy day I can read half a 300 page book. It's a gift? *shrugs*

Right now out of the 300 books that I own, over 200 of them are Christian fiction. I have (and read) historical to biblical, suspense to mystery (are they the same?), romance to chick lit. I'm glad to see that the genres are blossoming. It's nice to see that they are not stuck in the same old formula.

Now this is not to say that I like every single CF book there is. There are a bunch, espcially older CF, that I cannot stand b/c the characters are too perfect or make themselves to be martyr-like EVERY SINGLE TIME. I also don't like the way women are portrayed in some books. Just b/c you are a Christian does not mean that you have to let a man run all over you. I mean, please, some CF have men hitting women and not once does she stand up to him or do anything about it. All she does is forgive him at the end of the book and everyone is happy, la la la. Nothing wrong with forgiveness, but not a good message for readers in that situation.

Other than that, I adore CF. There's always something new to read and new authors to discover. Oh! and thanks to historical CF, i decided to switch my major from engineering to history, but that's another story....