Reading experience

   When I was a child, I enjoyed reading fairy tales, the magic that was in them, I think. For example, when I was about nine, there was a rather long tale, about a Russian warrier, who fought for something, had lots of adventures, I was reading this in the park library (there was a library in the park at that time in the city of Saratov, where we went for the whole summer), it was very exciting! Now I don't recall the details, the plot.
I liked other tales, magic stories, adventures, too. I liked the Chronicles of Narnia a lot. One of my favourite books was 'The Horse and His Boy'. When I was rereading it some time later -- I wanted more details: descriptions, relationships, psychology. I was about eleven or twelve -- I guess, something else was becoming more interesting about fairy tales, not the magical, adventure aspect, but the relationships of people, their psychology, their feelings, probably.

I'd like to speak about my teacher

  His name's Alexandre Vashchenko, he taught the History of English and American literature to us (students) at the Institute.
  When I remember my years of studies the most favourite subjects appear to be those connected with literature, reading and culture.
  This professor's lectures were always so interesting. We (my twin sister and I) always wanted more of them: we wished the period had continued. I thought, such teachers reveal to you the world of literature, how nice it is to have such guides, especially when you know little about the world of literature and reading.
  What was also valuable and interesting about his lectures was that he traced symbolisms, connections (for instance, the repetition of symbols or similarities in the plot), tradition. He analyzed well.
  Probably it was him who taught me to trace connections, symbols, tradition, allusions. I might have been ready to take this, while he was reading a lecture -- it was often exciting, he's a good story-teller -- maybe I felt sort of self-identification with the points he made (like "This is it" and "That's what I need and like"), I enjoyed this I am grateful to this teacher, I learned from him.