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Dessa Bayrock

Dessa's winning wit and wonderful range of literary interest captured our attention immediately. She writes with an effortless elegance, and it was my pleasure to discover that she possesses the same charms in person.

CAREER GOAL: English Professor
EDUCATIONAL PLANS: University of the Fraser Valley: University of Victoria
STUDENT PROFILE: Drama Club, Full Musical, Vocal Jazz, C.S.O.P.A., Volunteer; Chilliwack Players' Guild, Best Performer Award.

I have loved books from a young age. My parents never had a problem getting me to read, like most of my generation, but rather getting me to stop. By the time I was in first grade my favourite book was Alice In Wonderland.

A bibliophile was born.

At the tender age of ten, I raided my father’s bookshelf. He’d been collecting paperbacks since he was a teenager, and the worn and faded spines called to me like sirens. In some places three layers deep, the books had been practically untouched for over a decade. I looked at them all, and carefully picked four or five out every week, filling the spaces with the books I had read the week before. Before I reached age eleven I was addicted to old-school science fiction. My best friends were Heinlein, Asimov, Niven and Pohl.

When I was twelve, my older sister threw The Hobbit at my head and thus started my infatuation with fantasy. At this point I had pretty much exhausted my father’s bookcases, and I started on hers instead. Although at first I kept to Tolkien and Lemony Snicket, I soon moved on to Agatha Christie and Madline L’Engle. I fell in love with short stories, and when that fling ended, I was head over heels for classics. I read unabridged editions with a vigor my parents found frightening, although they weren’t truly afraid until I brought a Margaret Atwood book home and wouldn’t stop talking about dystopian societies.

Despite an increasingly crowded schedule as they years go on, I continue to make time for reading, often reading other books by the same authors of my childhood, but also getting reading lists from friends and finding them online. My shelf has grown to include Douglas Coupland, Alexandre Dumas, John Green, and Garth Nix, every one of them loved and read a thousand times. Good books never grow old, and although some of the books on my shelf are getting dustier and dustier each year, I continue to love them and the memories they hold for me.

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Dessa Bayrock

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