WHEN THE READING LIGHT WENT ON

“Sweet Alice” Harris, 65, executive director and founder of Parents of Watts, a community group that provides programs for pregnant mothers and foster families, a shelter for the mentally ill and a crisis center:

The reason I enjoy reading is that at one time there were so many places I could not afford to go, and yet I could open a book and visit any country that I wanted to visit.

I started loving reading about as far back as I can remember. We had to go to Sunday school, and they would pick on you if you didn’t know your Sunday school lesson, so my mother would read it to us. That got us interested and we were eager to learn how to read.

I grew up in Alabama, and I have memories of sitting down and reading at the barn because it was quiet. We raised cows, horses and chickens, and you could always go to the barn and get up on the second level where they kept the hay. You could get lost reading there. When I did that I would actually be where I’d be reading about: If it was a book about New York, I would be in New York! I also loved to read comic books.

Now I like to learn and read about the mind, so I enjoy books about psychology. I read a new book at least twice a month, and if I’m going out of town sometimes I read four or five, because I’ll read one in the plane. I use that time as my reading time. I also read the Bible every day.

When I got into this business of working with parents at the crisis center, I needed to read about resources. If I didn’t read a lot, I would not know how to help people.