I read biographies. Well, I read a lot of other stuff too, mysteries, love stories, poems and anything else I can get my hands on. But, biographies, they are always the best. Biographies, are more real than anything else I have ever read.

See, I have always been that girl who had her nose in a book. When I was little it was always non-fiction. My favorite smell is a book, new or otherwise. I would walk around my house, the grocery store and everywhere else reading. As I grew up, this began to wear off. I still read as much, but I started to gain other priorities like friendships and school work.

I feel like that’s important to why I’m a dedicated biography reader. I get to live vicariously through other people. With all that time spent reading, especially as a kid, I feel like I missed some of those childhood things like watching Disney movies everyday or playing tag with neighborhood kids every summer night. I pretty much only read non fiction.

Anyways, I was a very factual 2nd grader.

If you need another illustration of my childhood, my first (and still favorite) book was an encyclopedia on sea creatures and my favorite movie was Discovery Channel’s Walking With The Dinosaurs.

Reading was definitely not the best for me socially as I was super painfully shy, and would have rather been reading than talking to all of the strange 5-year-olds in my pre-k.

When I was in 1st grade I discovered biographies. It was when I did a research project  on Clara Barton. When I read a biography, suddenly I felt like I had experienced a thousand things. It’s much different than fiction because no matter how good the author is, nothing is better than a real story. Especially for an encyclopedia nerd as myself.

Ever since I have been fascinated with peoples lives. What is the underlying source of their power and success? Why is a certain person so resilient? All of these questions could be answered by a biography. It helps me pull out experiences from important peoples lives and apply them to myself.

I also think I have learned a lot more socially since I started reading biographies. And it’s amazing to be able to relate your social successes or struggles with someone you admire. I can pull conversational techniques from a politician, critical thinking skills from a famous gangster and hope from religious figures.

So, that’s what I mean when I say that I read biographies. They are the most amazing things you will ever read, and will give you experiences you may otherwise had never had.