Books, books, books, books, books.

I have never been able to get enough of them. Growing up without a television, books were my first friends.I was certain Nancy Drew needed another sidekick, besides George and Bess.Laura Ingalls Wilder was my BFF for most of elementary school.The Hardy Boys were the older brothers I never had.I would have appreciated “The Black Stallion” way more than Alec ever did! “Little Women” may be the Louisa May Alcott book that is the most recognized, but it has nothing on “Eight Cousins” and the Campbell Clan.Reading to my kids has always been something I have looked forward to and enjoyed.I’ve even gotten a little misty eyed as A and G have become independent readers and no longer need me to read to them before they go to bed every night.A has much the same interests that I had as a kid. He has read most of my old Hardy Boys books, dabbled in some historical fiction, some science fiction, indulged in some Sherlock Holmes, and devoured Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. We occasionally fight over who gets custody of what books when the school book order arrives.Most recently, he finished “The Hobbit,” which he enjoyed, but he was a little bit overwhelmed by the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He is saving it for when he turns 10.To absolutely no one’s surprise, G has a penchant for the “Diary of the Wimpy Kid” series. He also enjoys the Big Nate books.I can’t quite bring myself to read them. I gave it the old college try once but found that there is a limit to how much low brow humor and graphic novel I can take. I have tried to convince myself that at his age, quantity over quality is what’s important when it comes to reading.E, however, may break me and my lifelong love of the written word.E loves books just as much as the rest of us, however, she has long been insistent that she be the one doing the reading. Initially, it was cute. She would look at the pictures and either describe them or make up her own story. Many times, I would find her perched in her bedroom chair, with a slew of dollies set up around her, glassy eyes intently staring at her as she “read” to them.Then, she started to learn sight words. And the alphabet. And suddenly, reading time turned vicious. Now, she insists on reading all by herself. “Real” reading. The first rule of E is that if no one is there to hear her read, she is not really reading. The dollies no longer count. She needs a real live audience. One that comes with a lot of patience.Story time with E goes like this: First, she just assumes that because she knows the first letter of a word, she knows the rest of it. For example, everything starting with “F” is the word “friend.” So, if the sentence says the “funny friend,” it gets read as the “friend.”Then you suddenly have a 5-year-old book critic on your hands who is irate because the story makes no sense. After that storm, she will take her time and sound out her words very, very carefully.While this is better than the literary fury, it now takes us an hour to read a six-page book. It takes this long because any attempt by me to help her is met with a 10-minute tirade about how she can read all by herself! DO I NOT KNOW THAT ALREADY!?After we get finished with her book, I get the luxury of reading to her from a chapter book with no pictures in it. That’s another one of her rules: If there are no pictures in it, I am allowed to read it to her.We recently started one of my all-time favorites, “Little House in the Big Woods.” I am sad to say that Laura Ingalls’ idyllic pioneer childhood did not impress my 21st century daughter at all.E has begrudgingly allowed me to finish the book, but is not eager to read any more. We have started a few of the American Girl books. Unfortunately for my wallet, those books are designed to sell dolls and accessories, and E is their target audience. So they may or may not have “accidentally” fallen down the back of the book shelf.Truly, I am just glad that she is showing a passion for the written word, and I can’t wait to see what literary choices she makes in the future.As a writer, though, I have to admit I’m a little bit scared of the critic she can be.Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.