Member-only story
WRITER LIFE
Age 15 — And Already Plotting To Be the Next Agatha Christie!
Every nerd needs a hobby
Who was that one author that yanked you fully into being an avid reader?
Judy Blume? Tolkien?
Were they kids’ books? YA? Or did you dive fully into more serious fare?
For me it was the genre of mysteries.
Every blue hardcover Hardy Boy book adorned my childhood bedroom. Then Encyclopedia Brown and all his adventures, until a beloved English teacher challenged me to up the ante in my reading level and introduced me to Agatha Christie.
And an obsession was born.
Picture me, age 12 through 14, bounding happily to the Uniontown Mall bookstore in Pennsylvania, hard-earned paperboy-route money in hand, eager to study the Christie book covers in making my next selection, determined to read every title in her canon. (We’re talking over 80 of them).
I may’ve “wasted” a few too many pre-teen and teen afternoons happily ensconced in a cozy rocking chair, awaiting Agatha’s next twist, but so what? She saved me from the gladiatorial carnage of having to bounce a basketball in the driveway with my peers — bleh, no thanks.
