Eugenia Douglas looks pleased as she opens a book about children while on one of her many trips to the St Thomas Parish Library. - Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer

Seventy-seven-year-old Eugenia Douglas is no ordinary septuagenarian.

Douglas last year outperformed her peers in the Jamaica Library Service's reading competition and walked away with the organisation's 60th anniversary prize in the 60-and-over category.

"I love reading from I was small. Reading gives a lot of information that you can't get from anywhere else," Douglas told The Gleaner last Friday during an interview at the St Thomas Parish Library, which she visits at least once every two weeks to borrow books.

She added: "When you read, you can pick out sense out of nonsense."

"(As a child), when my cousins used to come home with their books, I used to take them and read to them," said Douglas.

She said her father also stressed the importance of reading in the household. "Him used to rough me up sometimes and my grandmother used to tell him to take him time with me," she reminisced.

Participants in the competition had to read a book then write a review. Douglas said she was ill when she participated, but still managed to do well.

"When I heard that I won, I was happy and said it must be God," said Douglas, who is a member of the Seventh-day Apostolic Church of God in St Thomas.

Douglas, who reads without glasses, said she can read at least three books in two weeks.

In fact, she borrowed three books on Friday: After the Storm There Is The Calm by Audrey Pottinger, Against a Peacock Sky by Monica Connell, and Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt.

"I have no time to be bored. When I am not reading books, I am reading the Bible or newspapers," said Douglas.

Remembers quotes

Douglas said her favourite book of all time was Julius Caesar, written by William Shakespeare.

Douglas also reads to her grandchildren. "They read to me and I read to them and I tell them stories from school days," she told The Gleaner.

Lorness Fulcott, librarian at St Thomas Parish Library, said one of Douglas' granddaughters, who sat English literature at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate level, said she managed to get a good grade in the examination because of discussions she had had with Douglas.

For her outstanding performance, Douglas won a weekend for four at Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort and several books.

"I will not stop reading. I will try my best to continue as long as the eyes are all right," she said.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com