Books took me places
Combie, Valerie (3-12-2011)
>>VALERIE COMBIE:  I'm Valerie Combie, the Virgin Islands Writing Project.  And I am attending the [inaudible] Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas.  I was very fortunate to have been exposed to books from a very early age.  And I discovered that books to me places where I didn't think I could've gone and so I kept reading.  I was from a rural area in the Caribbean and so many times I would hide my books under my blanket with a flashlight and I'd read.  And I just kept reading because the stories I've read, the people I read about helped me escape from some situations and I understood that there was a greater and wider world to which I could become a part, vicariously.  And one of the best things I thought happened in my third year of high school, actually in the British System it was different, it would've been my second year, I was made the school librarian assistant which has never happened in the history of our school and so I was thrilled.  That meant that every weekend I could take as many books as I wanted [laughing].  And so I would have my bag filled with books and I'd read all into the weekend and Monday I was ready to return those books and get a new supply.  And I continue reading today.  I am the director of a book club that we have at the university.  I order the books, of course the other members would recommend books, but we read so many books, so many kinds, different genres.  And in my classes, I teach freshman composition, and it is so very difficult getting my students to read today.  And I try to infuse that energy, that vivaciousness but somehow it's not happening and that is one of my great regrets.  My students are not reading as much as I'd like them to. And that's my story.