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Anthony Strapp
Emilia Grant
University Writing Program 1103
9/02/2014

As with most things in my life my father was my inspiration to learn to read. He always read and
the walls of his bed room were always filled with bookshelves overflowing on to the floor. I can
remember from a very young age my father would read stories to me as I fell asleep at night, and on
weekends he would always take long baths and read a book. He would take a book into the bath room
and tell me to get him in a certain amount of time. I would always look at the clock on the microwave in
the kitchen and do the math to figure out at what time he wanted me to get him out of the shower, and
I remember for the longest time the numbers 2s and 5s confused me so I would wait until the time
ended in any other digit so I could tell him the time and get him out of the shower. I remember the
white bathroom door that I would knock on, and the rubber ducks that sat on the back of the toilet as I
would enter. He would peak his head around the curtain and as I left I heard the water wash down the
drain and the sound of the shower starting. My father loved reading and I wanted to be just like him he
was my idol I aspired to be him and so I wanted nothing worse than to be able to read. He introduced
too many of the books that would come to define me over the years, everything from comic books to
animal farm, to the communist manifesto or childrens books like the magic tree house series, I became
who I am today through my father, the lessons he taught me and the books he made me read. When I
got older I learned something from my father that shocked me. When my sister was first born he could
hardly read aloud, and so every night when my sister went to bed he would struggle through reading to
her, every night. So as my sister and I grew older my father became more and more comfortable reading
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aloud until he could read fluidly and clearly. That wasnt the only adversity my father had to overcome
to read, he was dyslexic, when I found out I couldnt believe him I didnt take him seriously at first. There
was no way my father, who read every day, hundreds of books maybe even thousands, having read
some books as many as ten or fifteens time, was dyslexic. It was then that I realized something my hero
was flawed, my father who I idolized wasnt immortal, but I also learned something more important that
day, that no one was perfect and that our worth wasnt measured by our shortcomings or failures but by
the adversity that we overcome. After I learned about my fathers hardship I was more motivation than
ever to read, here I was perfectly able to read and still miles behind my father in the speed or amount I
read. That summer I would read almost constantly, I woke up and ran then I read then an afternoon nap
followed by more reading I must have read over twenty books that summer which compared to my
father was a drop in the bucket but for me I had explored bizarre new land and learned many new things
about fictional societys, I often look back over that summer before I had a job and wish I had the free
time to read.

The first book I remember reading was Yukon Ho! It was a book made up of many Calvin and
Hobbes comic stripes. The cover of the book was of Calvin a young blond child walking with his pet tiger,
Hobbes, as they ran away from home to go to the Yukon. When I was about 6 years old my father gave
me Yukon Ho! and it was the book that started my love of reading. At first I struggled to read and my
father taught me how he learned to read. When he was a child he would read his older brothers comics
by looking at the pictures and saying what he thought was going on in frame much like what Sherman
Alexie said he did with his superman comics. So I started to make up lines for each comic if I couldnt
read what was written and the further I got in the book the more I felt the need to learn to become
more literate. I loved the humor and the adventures Calvin and Hobbes went on, sometimes they went
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to class, sometimes Calvin was the astronaut Spaceman Spiff, and Calvins fathers hilarious answers to
the most basic answers made me burst into laughter, the sky is red during the sun set because the
atmosphere catches fire and the sun set in Arizona near flagstaff. As I grew older and became more
literate I devoured that book, the adventures of Calvin and Hobbes were something I looked forward to
every night. I would get home from school and rush through my homework so I could read more Calvin
and Hobbes. After I finished Yukon Ho! I moved onto other collections of Calvin and Hobbes comic
stripes, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes: Sunday pages 1985-
1995, Its a Magical World and The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book. As I grew older I moved
on to more complex books but Calvin and Hobbes have always held a special place in my heart. When I
moved recently I was looking through the attic and I found my stack of Calvin and Hobbes books and I
rushed down to my room and sat for hours remembering some of my favorite comics and reading some
I didnt recall. I stayed up all night and slept through half of my classes the next day but I was ecstatic to
have my old friends Calvin and Hobbes back. Yukon Ho! was one of the few books that I brought with
me to college and it will always have a special place in my heart and I know if I ever have a child this will
be one of the first books I give them.

The books that started my love for reading as a young adult were the Artemis Fowl books.
Artemis Fowl was a series of books written by Eoin Colfer, about a young child genius born into a wealth
family until his father was killed and his family lost much of their wealth. He used his genius to trick elves
and fairies, to regain his familys wealth so he could finally figure out what actually happened to his
father. Instantly I could relate to Artemis were basically the same person, sans his wealth and genius IQ.
I was introduced to the series when my sister brought the first book home and she seemed to enjoy
them so, as soon as she finished I picked it up. Anything my older sister could do I wanted to do better,
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for most of my life Ive been competitive with my sister, in school she got better grades and higher SAT
scores and on the track she was a better athlete then I was but I never gave up. What started as
competition turned to love, the magic and fantasy world which seemed to exist parallel to ours just
below the surface had me enthralled. One of my favorite things about the first book was that on the top
and bottom margins of every page had writing written in the fairy language. On one of the pages there
was fairy text next to the English translation and from there I was able to figure out the hidden message
hidden in the book. I read all the books until I caught up to the current book and I was devastated
waiting for the next book. I went to the book store with my father the day after it came out, we were on
vacation in Colorado visiting the Grand Canyon and we got lost looking for a book store but as soon as
we got the book and we were back in the car I didnt put the book down until I was finished. I hardly
remember the second half of the vacation, but I remember the book supremely clearly. One day a few
years ago I was walking around Barnes and Nobel when the silver and golden metallic covers caught my
eye, for nostalgia sake I reached for the book and flipped through the pages, and then out of the corner
of my eye I caught a book in a red cover sitting next to the rest of the books. I couldnt believe it there
was, another book that I hadnt read. I picked it up and rushed to the checkout line went home that day
and didnt sleep until I had finished the book. I was united with characters who had been missing from
my life for many years and it was like seeing long lost friends. When I finished I was sad, that was the
end of the adventure and I would most likely not see people who had defined my life again.