Reading is fundamental!

Today I put another book in my "to be read" (tbr) stack and wondered if I'd every finish any of them. I currently have two tbr stacks, one in the house and one in my car. I like to keep books in my presence because I never know when I'll have some down time and whenever I get the chance, I read.

My mom oftens wonders how I can read three to four books at a time, but any avid reader knows that we must have a book on hand at all times. I took a brief break from reading and now I'm back in full swing. I look at my stacks and wonder what in the world I was thinking to allow my reading to laspe, if even for a short time.

As I think about reading and my love for it, I tried to remember when I became a reader and who influenced this love. I remember my mom always taking my sister and I to the local library. She also had us in book clubs and we looked forward to receiving our monthly box of books, we still have some of those books and I've tried to pass them on to my kids...that's another story.

I took a turn and during the teen years my attention was on the usual stuff, ball games and hanging out. I do remember my eleventh grade teacher, Mrs. Smith, had a reading list, but what sixteen year old is interested in "The Scarlet Letter" and "The Great Gatsby"? I did find "The Lord of the Flies", "A Separate Peace "and "Jonathan Livingston's Seagull" quite interesting, but they didn't pique my interest to continue reading. Then came college and who had time to read with classes and parties going on. I was living too much to spend time reading! Having come from a small rural town in Southeast AR to a fairly large town in Northwest AR, I had to explore and that left no time for reading.

After I graduated from college, I spent some time unemployed and with nothing else to do in Montrose, I started reading. I went to the local library and discovered mystery and suspense and that is where my love affair began. I visited all the libraries in the area, since they were part of the same library sytem, I could use my card at each one and I learned about new authors. Not only that, I started reading and learning about African American authors and fell in love with Terry McMillan, Alice Walker, Walter Mosely, Connie Briscoe, Eric Jerome Dickey, and E. Lynn Harris.

I'd been such a frequent visitor to the libraries in area that when a position was available, I was recommended. From there, I started reading an abundance of authors and customers turned me on to James Patterson, Sue Grafton, Sidney Sheldon, Iris Johansen, Nancy Taylor Rosenberg, John Sandford, and Patricia Cornwell. I couldn't get enough. I've read just about everything these authors have written and I'm continually exploring new ground.

I'm finding that my reading interests is changing and that I'm more interested in nonfiction lately. I'm currently reading "Dreams of My Father" by Barack Obama. After reading about him in Time magazine and watching him on Oprah, I was struck by his sincerity and his dream of a bipartism government. I also want to read it before I move on to his second book, The Audacity of Hope."

I'm also reading, "The Teacher Who Couldn't Read" by John H Corcoran. I will be leading the discussion of this book at our monthly reading roundtable this month. Our group is made of several educators and teachers and I know it will be a lively event. Mr. Corcoran passed through the system and even graduated from college unable to read. There are skeptics and many doubters, but I believe Mr. Corcoran was a very smart man who had the ability to learn and manipulate people and circumstances to his advantage. Although this story takes place in the 1940s and 50s, it is still a timely book and makes readers wonder about the state of our educational system. I work with students who don't have the ability to read on a tenth grade level, but are in college expected to read and understand textbooks chapters at a time. The blame is passed around from teachers to parents to the students themselves, but until we all take responsibility for educating our children, the problem will not be solved.

In my stack, I also have "This Much I know for Sure" by Tavis Smiley. I read the first chapter and decided I needed to read further. Denzel Washington's, "A Hand to Guide Me." I even have a fiction book, E. Lynn Harris' "I Say a Little Prayer" just because I am such a huge fan.

So as I ponder when it was I began to become of lover of books, I have to say it was inbreded in me since childhood. No, my mom recently told me she read to me while she was pregnant with me. I guess we can hear our mom's voices in the womb. I'm trying to pass my love for books to my children and I think they'll take the same course I took. DQ is at the age where she is reading because she has to have a certain number of A/R points. LB is a the curious age, so whenever he asks a question about something, I bring a book home and he can read and learn about it. LP is four, so she loves to be read to and I enjoy reading to her. I love the smile and enthusiasm she displays as I read and get animated.

Two of my favorite quotes deal with reading.

"What is reading but silent conversation?"-- Walter Savage Landor

"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them."-- Mark Twain