What to use - Semi-colon?

[katiedub]

Hi, I am writing a reflective essay on learning to read and have a sentence that is causing me trouble grammatically. NB context is the "they" is relating to my parents

They told me that whilst I enjoyed looking at books and being read to, a story at bedtime was a nightly occurrence and something that I will always look back on with great affection, it was not until I reached school that I began the process of learning to read.

the part of the sentance that begins "a story at bedtime..." following the first commar is causing me the trouble. I don't really want to use brackets because, although it is a discurssive and subjective piece of writing, it is still an essay and I'm always rather wary of the usage of brackets. The sentance is obviously rather long and whilst it makes sense to me in the way that I read it, I am worried that it will not flow easily for the reader.

Perhaps I could use a semi-colon? (I regret that my knowledge of their usage is terrible!)

They told me that whilst I enjoyed looking at books and being read to; a story at bedtime was a nightly occurrence and something that I will always look back on with great affection, it was not until I reached school that I began the process of learning to read.

Does this make sense grammatically or can anyone make any other suggestions?

Your help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Katie

[bhaisahab]

Hi, I am writing a reflective essay on learning to read and have a sentence that is causing me trouble grammatically. NB context is the "they" is relating to my parents

They told me that whilst I enjoyed looking at books and being read to, a story at bedtime was a nightly occurrence and something that I will always look back on with great affection, it was not until I reached school that I began the process of learning to read.

the part of the sentance that begins "a story at bedtime..." following the first commar is causing me the trouble. I don't really want to use brackets because, although it is a discurssive and subjective piece of writing, it is still an essay and I'm always rather wary of the usage of brackets. The sentance is obviously rather long and whilst it makes sense to me in the way that I read it, I am worried that it will not flow easily for the reader.

Perhaps I could use a semi-colon? (I regret that my knowledge of their usage is terrible!)

They told me that whilst I enjoyed looking at books and being read to; a story at bedtime was a nightly occurrence and something that I will always look back on with great affection, it was not until I reached school that I began the process of learning to read.

Does this make sense grammatically or can anyone make any other suggestions?

Your help with this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Katie

It's better with the comma Katie. If you look at it like this:
They told me that whilst I enjoyed looking at books and being read to, it was not until I reached school that I began the process of learning to read.
This is a stand alone sentence, it's fine as it is. "a story at bedtime was a nightly occurrence and something that I will always look back on with great affection"
This is additional information and the right way to present it is as you have done, between commas.

[katiedub]

thank you for your reply. One day I'll get the correct usage of semi-colons!