?

The Prompt

Write about a book that changed you.

Read more about this here

I chose the title, a question mark because I don't know the title of the book that had the biggest influence on my life. I don't know the name of the book but I think it was a French translation. There was a dog called "Socks", that, as far as I know, is not an English pet name.

This was the book that my Mum used to teach me how to read before I went to primary school when I was four years old. Imagine not being able to read. Anyone who cannot read will not be able to see what I am saying here, so that book opened to me a whole universe of adventure, fun, and learning.

That opened the door to the two sets of encyclopedias that we had and they were my go-to place whenever I needed to know about something or get ideas for things that I had to write for school, they lasted into my secondary education where I first read a book that we had to do for school in the first year.

This opened my mind up to fantasy and adventure and was intermeshed with the Norse mythology that I had read at Primary school along with runes and dragons. I loved it so much that I then had to read "Lord of the Rings" so this was another door opener.

Finally "TaRaNtula" (I've used the book cover spelling) by Bob Dylan made me believe that I could actually write a book, even though it eventually crashed and burned, reading this made me really think "I might be able to write a book like this". Maybe this kept me writing on Seven Days In, and certainly, its stream-of-consciousness form has influenced a lot of my writing so this was definitely another door-opener for me, and it made me want to read other authors who wrote in the same vein.

I know this has been three books, but these are just three that were turning points in my creative life.

The music is "The Story of My Life" by The Velvet Underground which is sort of appropriate.