The Book that Made Me a Reader

My name Igor Shteyngart. I refugant to Kew Gardens, Queens, nine years old. Now they say I also name Gary. I like to read many book, but only Russian book because English not so good. My favorite book in Russian is Adventures of Tom Sawyers by the Mark Twain. It writes about sad time in America history with slave. Soviet edition say America bourgeois country which is bad, but I like American because there is cigar made out of pretzel that you can smoke and then you eat it and it is 5 cents at Te Amo store on Union Turnpike.

Tom Sawyer is bad boy but he is not afraid nothing. I afraid of many things and I dont know how to make people do what I say like paint fence. Tom Sawyer has what I like in book, in that boy has many adventures. I would like to write about boy who has many adventures also. Maybe I am boy I write about one day because I have many adventures alredy. I come from Soviet Union to Italy and then here, so it is adventure. But I would also like girl like Becky Thatcher to like me. And I want such friend as Geckleberry Finn, because I have only one American friend and she has one eye. She lost other eye some how. I wish also to travel to Misisipi River which is much bigger river than we have in Queens and also bigger than Neva River in Leningrad from which I am from. Thank you Mister Marks Twain for writing such good book. Next I read Geckleberry Finn story which I sure am also good.
-Gary Shteyngart

I guess the book that really made me a reader was The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins, by Doctor Seuss. It was my first encounter with a horror story, because poor Bartholomew was going to get his head chopped off if he couldn't take off his hat for the king. Every time he doffed one, there was another beneath. Of course I didn't understand the existential nature of his dilemma when I first read the book (I was in the second grade), but I never forgot how the hooded headsman, with his gigantic ax, made me feel. That story had it all: suspense, danger, an intrepid, good-hearted hero, and…best of all…a happy ending. I couldn't wait to find other stories that so completely engaged my heart and mind.
-Stephen King

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