By Olivia Rae @oliviaraebooks

Although I’m passionate about books today, I was not a reader at a young age. In fact, I was just the opposite. I avoided books. Reading was a struggle; my brain often transposed vowels in the medial position. Back in the day, teachers demanded their students to read out loud in class. I stumbled through my reading with pain, vowing that once I got through school, I would never pick up a book again. Coming from a home where no one read for pleasure, this mindset lasted my whole childhood. Until I went to high school.

My Freshman English teacher noticed my struggle with the required reading list. She asked me if I had a favorite subject in school. I didn’t have to think about it: History. The Freshman reading list for English was full of stories set in historical times–A Tale of Two Cities, Romeo and Juliet, Great Expectations—but me reading those? That just wasn’t going to happen.

This week Olivia Rae tells us about her reading life! #ReadingCommunity #BRRC #Reading Share on X

But my teacher didn’t give up on me. She convinced me to take a speed-reading class, and then she handed me a historical romance novel. “Read this,” she said. “I have a feeling it will improve your skills.” Between that book and the additional reading program, suddenly I was a reader. A reader of everything. Though I don’t read many romances anymore, I do write Christian romances. All thanks to someone who set me on a reader’s path years ago.

Today, I am an eclectic reader. In fact, I have a list of my own personal categorization of books: Religious, Research, Classic, Non-fiction, a book on my reading pile, and a book given to me from my sister (who is an avid reader herself). Once I’ve read a book in that category, I check it off the list. When the list is all checked off, I start all over again. Right now I am reading, Veiled in Smoke by Jocelyn Green. Can you figure out which category the book fulfills? You might be surprised.

I may not have started out as a reader in life, but if it’s God’s will, I hope to be an avid reader until the day I die.

 

Olivia Rae is an award-winning author of historical and contemporary inspirational romance. She spent her school days dreaming of knights, princesses, and far away kingdoms; it made those long days in the classroom go by much faster. Nobody was more shocked than her when she decided to become a teacher. Besides getting her Master’s degree, marrying her own prince, and raising a couple of kids,. Olivia is the winner of the Angel Awards, Book Buyers Best Awards, Southern Magic Award, New England Readers’ Choice Award, the Golden Quill Award and numerous other awards.