By Tabitha Bouldin @tabithabouldin

I’m pretty sure I won the reading lottery as a kid. You see, my sister is two years older than me, and one of the things she loved was coming home from school every day and teaching me what she’d learned. I learned to read by the time I turned four, and you could say the rest is history, but that wouldn’t be any fun.

Entering kindergarten already knowing how to read gave me an opportunity I never expected. My kindergarten teacher was so thrilled with my sister’s teaching that she allowed me to go to the first-grade classes and read to them during story time. For those of you who know me now, you’re probably thinking I hated that. The introvert in me cringes to this day, but at five years old, I was ready to take on the world.

Today Tabitha Bouldin tells us all about her reading life #BRRC #Reading #Readinglife Share on X

Until that fateful day when I mispronounced Beatrice. For a young kid learning compound words, you can guess what I called her. Beat. Rice. Yep. I did it. This is why if I ever meet you, I may ask you to pronounce your name. Learning pronunciation through reading is tricky since there’s no one there to tell you when you say it wrong.

The first time I stepped into a library, I could only stare, my mouth gaped open. Then the librarian told me I could take the books home. Home!

I remember racing to the Thoroughbred series lining the shelf and trying to grab all of them at once. That’s when I discovered the tragedy of checkout limits. Six books. Six books didn’t last me a week, but it was six books I’d never read before. Six adventures into the life of a girl who loved horses as much as I did.

Book reading progressed quickly from there. I read a few Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. Sugarcreek Gang, The Black Stallion, and Heidi were favorites I reread so many times that the librarian eventually gave them to me. I devoured every book I could find that had a horse on the cover, then moved into fantasy—because unicorns!—before eventually finding my way to Christian fiction.

What I love about this transition through my reading life is that I can still read my favorite things while staying within the realm of Christian fiction.

My Christian fiction adventure began with Janette Oke’s They Call her Mrs. Doc. I’m sure you can guess what I did after that. I ran to the library and checked out every Oke book on the shelf. At that point, I think the dear librarian had given up and decided that she trusted me. Librarians are the most amazing, wonderful people. It helped that I treated books like priceless treasure. No cracking spines or dog-earing pages. To this day, I like my books to appear pristine even after I’ve finished reading them.

From Janette Oke, I ventured into Lauraine Snelling’s world, and from there to Colleen Coble. Lonestar Sanctuary changed me in ways I’ve yet to fully understand. I read it shortly after its release in 2007 and while I may not remember every detail (or character names) I remember how it made me feel, and that was the moment when reading took on a whole new meaning. Books had depth and emotion that I’d never truly experienced. That’s what I look for now when I read, something that not only entertains and sweeps me away on an adventure but takes my emotions along for the ride.

 

 

 

Tabitha Bouldin has a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing/English from Southern New Hampshire University. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and has been writing since 2015. When she’s not homeschooling her kids, you’ll find her curled up with a book. Tabitha’s genre of choice is Contemporary Christian Romance which she describes as: Adventure with heart.