>>24616493 (OP)
I was a weird kid and a late bloomer in many ways. Reading a book was infinitely more enjoyable that getting picked on by the other kids. My mom coud probably have used some kind of meds but that wasn;t how things we done back then. Once again, sticking my nose in a book? I didn't get yelled, slapped, lectured or grounded. The waitress at out favorite diner didn;t believe my parents that I would read a whole paperback in a weekend like it was nothing. So she gave me one of *her* paperbacks and I brought it back to her and thanked her for the free read. This is like second grade for my age. Looking back I now realize I was being quizzed to prove I read the book and to see what I understood in it by an adult. I literally and figuratively both? Buried my nose in a book 24-7 365, if awake and nothing else was required of me. I have literally read thousands of books between first grade and the age of early thirties. I'm honestly not bragging, I realized I was reading my whole life the way an alcoholic drinks compulsively. I know I got fidgety with nothing to read, nervous to get yelled at for *whatever* as it seemed to always be something. So you can see I'm clearly not bragging how well I read. My vocabulay, verbiage, etc are all high for obvious reasons. Most schoolwork is an A when you can quickly read the whole textbook several times and have recall of most of it. Most tests I just read the relevant chapters like a dozen times.
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I mean, its my thing I can flex. But what the gods give with one hand they take away with the other. It should come as no surprise I'm considered somewhat eccentric. As an adult? I actually like who I am. I like the big advantage and I've long ago rationalized away the traditional social norms. I guess the gods heard my pleas, and I was destined to end up in what I considered a bizarre social setting as a young adult and then for life it seems. I suddenly had a workout buddy at age 18. Today you would call hi a chad, but he read books. Played chess. His big friend group, was *gulp* all chads like himself. I was a sensitive bookworm and my peer group was basically half the wrestling team. Yeah, that was a trip. I slowly without realizing it was turned into chad-lite, I suppose. My chad reader friend? I felt "intimidated" because he had read Plato's Republic and I hadn't. he actually loaned me cool stuff. Eric van Lustbader. Lord of the Rings.
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But reading really has been one of the main defining features of my bizarre life's path.
"Books are cold but fast friends."
"Education maketh a man fit company for himself."
