I have not traveled outside of the United States of America, though I would love too. Because of this, I tend to believe everything that is written about places I have never been too because I do not know otherwise and I am a very trusting individual. The pictures that books have painted for me, regardless of how bizarre they may be, have formed many of the images that I have developed about other countries. I have a dream to travel the world one day, so the more exotic these descriptions are about other countries, the more I believe them and the more excited I get. I have an interest in books with any information at all about places around the world, and I think that these stories are exciting and wonderful to read whether they are or not. I may misread the information or let my imagination run away with me and misinterpret some of the descriptions or other parts of the story.
My interests also play a huge role in my expectations of literature. I love reading mysteries, romance novels, and childrens books. I expect these types of books to be interesting and exciting and usually they are. This is probably due to my attitude about them. When I was younger my mother gave me some of The Happy Hollisters books, which were mystery books for children, that she read when she was younger. Connecting with my mother through literature was an amazing experience and that triggered my love for mystery books. When I was a young child I thought my mother was perfect and the smartest woman in the world. In fact, I still do. I wanted to be like her in every way and I thought that if my mother liked mystery books then they must be worth reading. After I finished reading The Happy Hollisters my mother bought me Nancy Drew books that she used to like as well as The Bobsey Twins. I then got into Encyclopedia Brown books and was amazed that my father could always figure out all of his mysteries. I wanted to be like Encyclopedia Brown because he was so smart. He was very popular in school and with the kids in his neighborhood and I was not. He could solve every problem that crossed his path in a heartbeat and my life was just not that simple. I envied him and would unsuccessfully look for mysteries of my own to solve.
My mother reads a lot of books and I remember her reading Bridges of Madison County when I was younger. I wanted to read it, but she said that I was too young to read such a book so of course it sparked my curiosity. I snuck the book into my room and read it anyway, and after I was finished I agreed that I was too young to read that book. I still love reading romance novels because I find them exciting, probably because I once saw them as forbidden.