Love to Read

I’ve always loved to read. I remember as a kid having the flashlight under the covers so that I could read. Even now, if it’s a good book, I want to read it to completion and neglect all the other stuff I have to do so that I can just slip away into an imaginary world of other people, other places, other lives…

My eyes are closed right now, just slipping away…

I’m smiling…

But I digress. I’ve been trying to pass the love on to my children. There are books galore in my house. I enjoy holding onto an actual book (no silly electic book for me!). Beautiful illustrations, whimsical typeset – children’s books are really my favorite. That’s partly why I love the library so much. I can’t afford my book habit.

Professor is an avid reader. Like me, he doesn’t want to put a book down. He’s an advanced reader too – always has been. He takes a book just about everywhere he goes. Compulsive reader really. He loves to read so much that one time – the bad parent that I am – I took away his books as a punishment. It was the only thing that worked at the time!

Blue is a totally different type of reader. It’s hard to select books for her as a gift because she enjoys factual information on whatever topic she is intrigued by at the moment. She doesn’t read cover to cover, but more topic to topic, jumping around until she finds the information that strikes a chord with her.

Girlie and Gorilla are learning to enjoy books too. The love going to the library and picking out their books. They each get magazines in the mail (thank you great grandma and grandpa) and books through Dolly Pardon’s Imagination Library. Gorilla, in particular, likes to be read to – and all kinds of different books. He has his favorites, but isn’t all too picky.

Lately, I’ve been making a more concerted effort to spend time reading with my children. I do it here and there, but I’m trying to spend better time each day reading with them. I really want them to be lifelong lovers of books. We have books everywhere (more than we need probably) and we encourage them to look at books on their own, but there is just something special about stories being read aloud. So each night, I try to read 1-2 books with Girlie and Gorilla. Professor and I have been reading a chapter out of The Giver each night. I’d love to have a family reading time. I have great visions of all of us sitting around the fireplace listening to chapters from The Little House on the Prairie, but I just don’t think that will be happening any time soon.

Sigh. A girl can dream can’t she?

Anyway, all that to say that it warms my heart when my kids ask to have books in bed with them. I’m glad they enjoy books as much as I do. That’s one good thing they’ve gotten from me. Hopefully, that love will be one that stays with them for a lifetime.