Me, my Dad & Books

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A couple weekends ago, I had this conversation with my dad.

Me: Daddy, I want to read more classics.
Him: *side-eyes me* I've been telling you that for years.
Me: *sigh* I KNOW. Now tell me what your top 5 classics are. 

As I was recounting this conversation to friends, I found myself remembering just how much of a role my dad played in me becoming a bookworm. Truth be told, I don't know if I ever would've found my love of reading without him. When I was little I enjoyed being read to but I was far more interested in TV/movies, dance and music. Then in second grade my dad said something to me that I've never forgotten:

You're missing out on a whole other world by not reading. 

I wrote this post on a whim
and this was the best childhood
photo I had on me!

I feel like he flipped some internal switch in me and from that day on, you couldn't find me without a book in hand (no joke, there were a couple summers during middle school where I read 90 books). He and I started going to the library every two weeks and I would check out the maximum of 12 books each time. And of course, he'd always pick at least 1 or 2 because he didn't want me reading junk (he said this a lot during my Baby-Sitter's Club phase; whatever Dad!). He really encouraged me to not just read but to read classics. Which is probably why at 12 years old I found myself picking up books like Wuthering Heights (way too young to get it) and randomly reading classics all the way through college. It also didn't hurt that he'd sporadically buy classics for me, strongly hinting that I give them a shot. (He's always pushing Russian lit on me!)

It still surprises me though just how much he's read. In case you didn't pick up on it yet, the man loves his classics. His favorite author is Hemingway and my response is always, do you remember Old Man and the Sea? (I hated it.) But I keep trying his books anyway, just because my dad loves him. We can talk about Shakespeare (he loves Henry IV, I love Tempest), Daphne du Maurier, C.S. Lewis or authors I know I should get to but haven't yet. Just last week he said I should read more Tolstoy but I said no because the ending of Anna Karenina made me so mad. His response was to laugh at me.

That said, he doesn't just read classics. Funnily enough, when I was still living at home and after he retired, he'd go into my room and grab some young adult books off my shelves. He even tried The Fault in Our Stars to see what all the fuss was about. I knew he wouldn't like it but I really wanted to see his reaction! Only a few chapters in, he got exasperated with how "simple the prose was" and that time, I was the one laughing at him.

Maybe it's a mix of getting older and feeling nostalgic, but I find myself feeling so grateful that I had someone in my life who always encouraged me to read and also shared that same passion about books too.

Which is why I'm making it a point to read my dad's top 5 classics this year. Much to my surprise, his answers were:

1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (I was hoping he'd say Great Expectations since I've seen the movie.)
2. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (going to give this another shot!)
4. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 
5. The Little Lame Prince by Miss Mulock (it was his childhood favorite and he's read it to me so I can cross this one off my list!)

I've already bought Tale of Two Cities and Wuthering Heights so I'm excited to get started and to talk to my dad about them when I'm done!

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Are you a fan of classics?

And who encouraged you to read while growing up?