At Five I Learned to Read ...

Sean Connery's Words of Wisdom

I love this acceptance speech by Sean Connery. I hope you do too.

Reading opened new worlds to me as well. I was especially drawn to mythology, to Aesop’s Fables, to fairy tales and the like. With the Scholastic Book Club program, where you could order books in school, I recall discovering Jack London’s “White Fang,” perhaps my favorite book as a youngster. Only later did I discover “The Sea Wolf,” also by London, as well as “Martin Eden.” He was a wonderful writer. Profoundly human.

As a teenager in the 1970s, I was a big science fiction fan (Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation Trilogy” was a favorite, as was Roger Zelazny’s “Amber” series). I also read my share of Stephen King. (“It” may be his masterpiece.) Of course, I had to read “better” books for school, classics like “The Scarlet Letter” and “A Tale of Two Cities,” and I often enjoyed them as well.

I still read my share of books. I so much like going to new places in my mind and imagination with the help of a good book.

As Sean Connery says, learning to read is magical. I think I learned to read about the same age as he did—five years old. Surely it’s the most important habit and skill I’ve acquired in my life.

Long live the readers!