Guest Blogger Showcase: Melissa @ Writer Grrl Reads

So this week I wanted to feature a bunch of my most favorite bloggers. The gals that I really enjoy reading because they are authoritative, thoughtful, and creative whenever they set out to post on their blogs. I am not sure if my readership is also reading them too but they should be!

Today we have Melissa from Writer Grrl Reads. She is "a reader, a writer and a compulsive alphabetizer. Fitting then, that [she is] also a library technician in training." Catch her on Twitter & Goodreads. I LOVE this account of her daydream come true!

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I can't even remember a time when I didn't love to read. From the day that my mom helped me to sound out each and every word of Little Bear on my own, I've never looked back. My mom always wanted me to read "good quality" books, so I read Little Women, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and all the other books that she thought were appropriate for my age. She hated that I read Sweet Valley books, or Babysitter's Club, so I used to sneak up to the checkout counter, my arms full of whichever titles I had grabbed off the shelves, and stuff these treasures into my backpack. Then, I'd head off to find my mother and let her know that I was ready to leave, a copy of Black Beauty clutched in my hands. Perhaps my love of reading grew from those moments, the thought that I was defying my mother by reading illicit materials, underneath the blankets with a flashlight, when I was supposed to be sleeping. Throughout my entire life, books have always been there for me. I escaped into fantastical realms as a means of getting away from bullies and I dreamed of what life would be like once I found my one true love.

Years later, while in university, I obtained a part-time job at an independent bookstore. This was, hands down, the best job that I've had thus far. It was every reader's dream job: access to thousands of titles, advance reading copies in the staff room and the chance to recommend my favourite books to customers who were looking for a new book to capture their hearts. Sometimes, I'd imagine a dashingly handsome man approaching the till to pay for a book, only to find that it was a copy of one of my all-time favourite novels. We'd strike up a conversation, and find that books were just the starting point for all of the things that we had in common.

Then, one day, a rather handsome man did come into the store, looking for a book about cats. I happened to be working in the children's section on that quiet summer day, and we chatted for a while about books. I didn't think much more about the encounter, until I saw him again, and again, and again. In fact, he came into the store about half a dozen times, each time stopping to chat for a while. Then, in the midst of a busy Christmas shopping day, he asked me if I'd like to go for coffee. I, of course, agreed. Finally, my dream come true -- a literary, book-loving man! Five years later, we returned to the very same bookstore and, in the same place that he had asked me for coffee, he got down on one knee and asked me if I would be his wife. And, as they say in books, we lived happily ever after.