I grew up in a house of books. My mom loves books and my grandparents were always reading books, so while I wasn’t an early reader, books have always been a part of my life. I’d like to take these four 5th Tuesdays of 2023 to share some of my favorite reading memories with you all.

I was sixteen years old when I picked up a very fat biography of D. L. Moody by his son. We didn’t own it, but had borrowed it from some friends for some reason. But I was intrigued. I had listened to and read other stories about D. L. Moody, so I knew his story. Why should I be interested in this monster of a book? I’m not sure. After all, it wasn’t a school book, and I wasn’t really into non-fiction. But for whatever reason, I decided I wanted to read it.

So I began.

I started it near the beginning of January and it took me almost a month to read it. But read it I did. And I loved it! That was my first venture into the world of biographies that were not for school. I ended up getting my own copy of that book and it sits on my shelf, a reminder that biographies and big fat books aren’t scary.

But that wasn’t the only fat biography I read. After D. L. Moody, I dove into books by Mrs. Howard Taylor (daughter of Hudson Taylor) such as “By Faith” and Guinness of Honan. Books by and about Amy Carmichael and Isobel Kuhn. Biographies about people who were not missionaries. I found myself loving the stories of real people and not just fictional ones.

Even now I enjoy a good biography. Sometimes I’ll read a bunch of biographies written for younger readers, other times I’ll find another bigger book to enjoy. But I will always look back with fond memories on that first big, fat biography that started my love of real stories about real people.

What about you? Do you enjoy reading biographies? Have you ever just decided to read a biography for fun? Do you like non-fiction books at all? What is a favorite biography you have read?