This Sunday, the New York Times Book Review's "By the Book" segment will feature actor Neil Patrick Harris, author of Choose Your Own Autobiography (Crown Archetype). Our favorite exchange:
What kind of reader were you as a child?
I was a voracious reader as a kid. The first job I ever had was in a wonderful small bookshop in Ruidoso, N.M., called the Aspen Tree, run by an extraordinary woman named Jane Deyo. She took me under her wing and showed me the joy and respect of all things literary. I would take inventory, restock, organize, make displays, run the register. I was all of 10 or 11. But I was treated like such an equal, given a healthy amount of adult responsibility, and I'll never be able to thank Jane Deyo enough for that. It also ignited a fire in me to read as much as possible. We used to have contests at the elementary school--who could read the most books in a week or a month. I'd power through 30, 50 books. I was unstoppable. Just loved the feel and the smell of the pages. Loved immersing my brain into uncharted territories. Loved turning that last page and closing the book, a changed man. Still do.
