Table of Contents

The table of contents had always been my worst enemy.  I was always tempted to skip forward to the chapter that sounded the most interesting and in doing so often treated chapter books like they were of the Choose Your Own Adventure genre.  The librarians knew my proclivities and tried to gently guide me toward short stories. 

I resisted for a long time, but slowly got tired of not understanding the books I chose and relented.  For the first time in my life, I read an entire book and understood everything.  I didn’t read the book straight from front to back, but I read every single word and quickly went back for more. 

My biggest problem with finally reading and enjoying the books I was checking out from the library meant I was starting to neglect my other duties.  I just couldn’t quite get myself to pay attention in class because I kept thinking about what story I was going to read next.  Everything came crashing down around my ears when the library caught on fire.