So, my strange parents – not only did they have weird jobs, like ski instructor, but they also didn’t have a TV. They didn’t make a lot of money. [chuckles] So we did not have a TV, we lived in a small two bedroom apartment, and my dad would read to us, and I was the oldest, oldest of five kids, and he would read to us the fantasy stories he liked.
You know, we were lucky because he liked The Hobbit and he liked The Lord of the Rings and he liked The Chronicles of Narnia. He read to us and while he would read I would draw, make little doodles, and pictures. And that really became an exciting thing for me to listen to a story while I drew.
And so fairly – I wish I found them sooner, but I would say maybe 9th grade I started discovering audio books, books on tape, at that point they came in the big plastic case, and you got sixteen cassette tapes, and I would put them into my headphones, and I would listen to them, and read them.
But I was a big fan of science fiction, of fantasy, Roald Dahl, of course, was a big one for me in middle school – or middle grades, elementary school. My favorite of the Roald Dahl books was not Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, the sequel where Charlie goes to space with Willie Wonka and they fight aliens. And I tell that to some kids today, and they’re like that didn’t happen, and I’m like it’s a real book, you can check it out.
