Anne Fadiman's Relationship With Books

The relationship between Anne Fadiman (author of Ex Libris) and books can be clearly seen when reading all her eighteen essays. She has a strong relationship with books, but this can be associated with her always being around books all the time since her childhood. I wish I had a childhood like hers filled with books. The first books I came in contact with outside school was a children’s book on how to speak and write in Spanish.

My mother thought it would be a great decision if I were to be learning a new language while learning English at the same time. With my brother she chose another path after seeing my results she decided to let him learn English first and then teach him Spanish. My history with books in school started in Kindergarten

Fadiman seems to share this funny life event regarding books in her chapter of "Never do that to a book". Well, my funny story regarding a book will have to be when I became a criminal to my young mind in fifth grade. Financially wise I was poor meaning that my parents could not afford to buy me all the books that I would want. Going to the bookstore would be a torture when it was not my birthday because I could not take any books home, so when the book fair came along to my school I knew I would just suffer when it was the turn of my class to go and visit the fair. Sure enough fair came around and the few friends I had were better off financially so they got to take two to five books with them while I just settled with being able to read them on the spot. At the time, I was obsessed with The Muppets, and my parents working for the Jim Henson company at the time just fueled it more. My makeshift room was filled with various Muppets objects, and when I went to that book fair I saw something that I wanted very badly. In the cover, it had Kermit the Frog sitting on a stool with the title Before you Leap: A Frog's Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons. I read the first few pages and I knew that I wanted the book, but the sad part was the fact that I did not have the money for it or had anyone that could lend me the money. I was always a good kid always following orders, but that day I said no one will find out. I

With growing up and advancing in school free time dwindles down to bare nothing signifying my days of reading of fun were to come end once entering high school. I would read for fun but the task seemed more tiresome because of the vast amount of homework I would receive in a daily amount. In my second year of high school and the partial beginning of my third year, I became more interested in plays and poetry. I would come to read various plays sometimes at a rate of a play per day, and also would write my own poetry. One of the few friends I had back then loved my poetry that we came to create a small book with her drawings and my poetry and handing it out to other friends to have some fun. Like previously said that also came to end when senior year came and free time was gone especially when I was accepted to a private university a year before I was to find out about Pierce College free time was completely annihilated. With being a full-time