When people first get to know me they usuall find out 1) I am loud and talkative 2) I absolutely love to read.
There are two things, maybe three, that fed my love of the written word:
The thing is I didn't use to love to read. It was very hard for me to read. In first grade I was in the Red Robins. This was the lowest of three reading levels in WCCS Mrs Brody's first grade class behind the Blue Jays and White Doves. The goal was to move up in the groups and if you were in the White Doves at the end of the year then you got to put on a play. I wanted to be in that play more than anything but I didn't read well. I wasn't behind really so much as I hadn't developed the natural rhythm that comes with reading. I made it into the Blue Jays right before the end of the year and I didn't get to be in the play, which was Billy Goats Gruff. They had "costumes" and everything! I was determined that next year I would be in the play. I spent most of the summer reading. Unfortunately the next year in Mrs Bell's second grade we didn't have reading levels or even a play, so I never got to show off my new skill but the time I had spent reading over the summer had opened a world to a painfully shy girl who could be anything she wanted.
The second thing that really hooked me on reading was my dad. For as far back as I can remember he would read to us at night. Early on it was Dr Seuss: Hop on Pop, Green Eggs and Ham, Fox in Socks, and Doctor Seuss' ABC. These books were read with funny voices and always when reading the ABCs he would, and still does, have great excitement to read the letter O. "Oscar's only Ostrich oiled an Orange Owl Today" after reading that he would crack up at the picture.
As we grew older, so did the books. My dad would read CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, giving voice only to Reepicheep who would have a high piping voice, and JRR Tolkein's Lord of the Rings as well as any other books we might have been interested in at the time (I was an avid fan of Nancy Drew). Every night he would pick one of the girl's rooms to read in and someone would yell "Dad's reading now!" and we would all go and cuddle up next to him. One of us under each of his arms and the other somewhere across the top of the bed above his head. We all loved reading along with him. A book would be read and reread. Katie, Kristen, and I (John wasn't old enough to know what was going on) frequently taking trips with the Penvensie children, Lucy and Edmund in particular as Voyage of the Dawn Treader was on the favorites. Books were not seen as sacred objects to be maintained but as an adventure to be drawn into. Pages were earmarked, dust jackets (really hate those things) were torn and raggedy, and blotches of pre-bedtime snacks made it's way on to the page as we handled the book.
Both of my sister's have amazing insight into books and now my brother is developing that ability as well. They can see the symbolism and the authors intent with foreshadowing and allegories. Katie has an English degree from UGA and both Katie, Kristen, and John were in Honors English. The family now reads (separately) amazing literary works like Catch 22 and War and Peace (I haven't been up on the Baker book club as I have read neither of these) but also fun stories like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games (these aren't really to Katie's and Kristen's taste though).
I feel blessed to have been giving the amazing desire to read anything from fiction to biographies (I highly suggest Dick Van Dyke's autobiography) and I hope to pass this love on to my future kids.
Read more about my awesome father in my sister's blog here
There are two things, maybe three, that fed my love of the written word:
The thing is I didn't use to love to read. It was very hard for me to read. In first grade I was in the Red Robins. This was the lowest of three reading levels in WCCS Mrs Brody's first grade class behind the Blue Jays and White Doves. The goal was to move up in the groups and if you were in the White Doves at the end of the year then you got to put on a play. I wanted to be in that play more than anything but I didn't read well. I wasn't behind really so much as I hadn't developed the natural rhythm that comes with reading. I made it into the Blue Jays right before the end of the year and I didn't get to be in the play, which was Billy Goats Gruff. They had "costumes" and everything! I was determined that next year I would be in the play. I spent most of the summer reading. Unfortunately the next year in Mrs Bell's second grade we didn't have reading levels or even a play, so I never got to show off my new skill but the time I had spent reading over the summer had opened a world to a painfully shy girl who could be anything she wanted.
The second thing that really hooked me on reading was my dad. For as far back as I can remember he would read to us at night. Early on it was Dr Seuss: Hop on Pop, Green Eggs and Ham, Fox in Socks, and Doctor Seuss' ABC. These books were read with funny voices and always when reading the ABCs he would, and still does, have great excitement to read the letter O. "Oscar's only Ostrich oiled an Orange Owl Today" after reading that he would crack up at the picture.
Both of my sister's have amazing insight into books and now my brother is developing that ability as well. They can see the symbolism and the authors intent with foreshadowing and allegories. Katie has an English degree from UGA and both Katie, Kristen, and John were in Honors English. The family now reads (separately) amazing literary works like Catch 22 and War and Peace (I haven't been up on the Baker book club as I have read neither of these) but also fun stories like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games (these aren't really to Katie's and Kristen's taste though).
I feel blessed to have been giving the amazing desire to read anything from fiction to biographies (I highly suggest Dick Van Dyke's autobiography) and I hope to pass this love on to my future kids.
Read more about my awesome father in my sister's blog here
No comments:
Post a Comment