Reading Changed My Life - Townsend Press

Reading Changed My Life! Three True Storiespeople who are unable to read their rights, and Ithink how hopeless life must look for them.”Julia herself not only enjoys reading, but herlove of books has benefited her professionally. Shespeaks beautifully, with a large vocabulary at hercommand. At the police station, she was frequentlycomplimented on her clearly-written arrest reports.“I write well because I read,” she says. “If you read,you learn to write. You absorb the style, you learngood grammar, you learn to talk properly. Usinglanguage well becomes second nature.”Remembering all these things, and thinking ofthe children growing up knowing nothing of themagic of books, a vision came to Julia. She wantedto do for these children what her Aunt Ruby haddone for her. “I wanted to tell them, ‘It’s okay toread. It’s okay to borrow books. You just need tolearn to take care of them.’ I knew I had to getbooks into these children’s hands. But I didn’tknow where the books were going to come from.”70