Day 57 of 365 - The Gift of Reading
In this week's mail, I got the bill for a Reader's Digest subscription. That is one magazine subscription that I'm very happy to purchase. I used to get this magazine years ago, took a break from it and am very happily enjoying it again these past few years. It provides a great variety in short reads and entertaining activities.
The real purpose of this particular post though, is to convey just how much I appreciate the gift of reading. I don't remember the exact time that I learned to read, but I certainly recall how delighted I was by having that skill. The next related thrill was whatever age I discovered that I could get a library card and choose books to take home, rather than just having my school reader.
That ability to use the public library literally opened up a whole new world to me. I never got tired of the array of choice and delighted bringing home stories that were just for me, or it seemed that way. We didn't really have a collection of children's books in my childhood home until my youngest brother was nearing school age. That was when my mother discovered the subscription service to the Dr. Seuss story books. My memory may be a little fuzzy on that, but it's the series I recall.
As I grew into my teen years, the variety of reading was influenced by authors I was introduced to in English classes at school. Then, moving into adulthood, reading for leisure was guided by recommendations from friends or seeing excerpts or reviews of books in magazines. One of the features in the Reader's Digest is such reviews, and I still make note of book titles from there.
Of course, during university and in my busy career years, I read a LOT of academic books and journal articles along with some leisure reading. Now in my senior years I still read a variety of non-fiction and fiction books. Many of the non-fiction books are health and wellness related, interpersonal relations or sometimes metaphysical topics. Fiction books range from cozy mysteries, to character studies series, to more in depth novels.
Unlike my husband, who can have several books on the go at once, I rarely have more than one fiction and one non-fiction at a time. I make a serious commitment to my topics and characters and do not want my experience muddied with several story lines in my head.
Even now, at the age of 64, each time I pick up a new book, whether purchased or from the library, or a Kindle book, it feels like I'm receiving a gift. And I am. Somebody took the time and made the effort to write that book, and many years ago, somebody taught me to read. I never want to take that for granted.
I mentioned in an earlier post about vision, how disheartening it was for me to be unable to read books when I was dealing with cataract issues. During that time audio books were a great respite for me. But, as soon as I could do so comfortably, I was back to reading the printed word.
In my career as an infant development therapist, one of the questionnaires we used to assess the home environment included questions about whether books were visible in the home and whether parents reported reading to their child on a regular basis. These are important predictors of development outcomes, along with many other factors of course.
I am happy to report that our little grandson, now 16 months old, already has a very large library of books, is read to every day, and enjoys looking through his board books on his own. I certainly hope he will experience the same thrill I did as a child, when he learns to read, and that he will develop a life long love of reading.
The real purpose of this particular post though, is to convey just how much I appreciate the gift of reading. I don't remember the exact time that I learned to read, but I certainly recall how delighted I was by having that skill. The next related thrill was whatever age I discovered that I could get a library card and choose books to take home, rather than just having my school reader.
That ability to use the public library literally opened up a whole new world to me. I never got tired of the array of choice and delighted bringing home stories that were just for me, or it seemed that way. We didn't really have a collection of children's books in my childhood home until my youngest brother was nearing school age. That was when my mother discovered the subscription service to the Dr. Seuss story books. My memory may be a little fuzzy on that, but it's the series I recall.
As I grew into my teen years, the variety of reading was influenced by authors I was introduced to in English classes at school. Then, moving into adulthood, reading for leisure was guided by recommendations from friends or seeing excerpts or reviews of books in magazines. One of the features in the Reader's Digest is such reviews, and I still make note of book titles from there.
Of course, during university and in my busy career years, I read a LOT of academic books and journal articles along with some leisure reading. Now in my senior years I still read a variety of non-fiction and fiction books. Many of the non-fiction books are health and wellness related, interpersonal relations or sometimes metaphysical topics. Fiction books range from cozy mysteries, to character studies series, to more in depth novels.
Unlike my husband, who can have several books on the go at once, I rarely have more than one fiction and one non-fiction at a time. I make a serious commitment to my topics and characters and do not want my experience muddied with several story lines in my head.
Even now, at the age of 64, each time I pick up a new book, whether purchased or from the library, or a Kindle book, it feels like I'm receiving a gift. And I am. Somebody took the time and made the effort to write that book, and many years ago, somebody taught me to read. I never want to take that for granted.
I mentioned in an earlier post about vision, how disheartening it was for me to be unable to read books when I was dealing with cataract issues. During that time audio books were a great respite for me. But, as soon as I could do so comfortably, I was back to reading the printed word.
In my career as an infant development therapist, one of the questionnaires we used to assess the home environment included questions about whether books were visible in the home and whether parents reported reading to their child on a regular basis. These are important predictors of development outcomes, along with many other factors of course.
I am happy to report that our little grandson, now 16 months old, already has a very large library of books, is read to every day, and enjoys looking through his board books on his own. I certainly hope he will experience the same thrill I did as a child, when he learns to read, and that he will develop a life long love of reading.
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