Back to school

My biggest school struggle as a child was finding things to read.  They turned you loose in the library with no guidance or direction, my choices were random at best.  At home, the main goal was not to alert the maternal unit that you even existed, let alone expect guidance or encouragement in the literary realm.  In junior high they assigned books for you to read but never gave you any background on why that particular book was worth reading so to my immature mind they were just lousy stories we had to read for class.  Now I could suggest a whole slew of great books for the age 12+ reader, but what do I do for my 6 year old?  I want him to learn to love reading and stories, not kill that budding love by inane books or too much pressure, but to do that, he needs to discover books he can fall in love with.  That is one advantage of technology: there's a whole world of great stories out there, now closer than ever.  Encouraging the young readers in your life is one of the most important things you will ever do, as the rate of readers in America continues to plummet into a seemingly bottomless abyss!

A tale of two critters

I loved the Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer when I was a kid and it's been fun introducing them to our son.  We bought several of the multivolume sets when he was fairly little and have been enjoying them again and again, well most of them.  I love the wit, whimsy, love, humor, and grace with which these books portray everyday life with small kids, at least in the older books.  Some of the newer ones are a downright bore.  Yep, just another book about eating right and exercising and being nice to people, not that there is anything wrong with that sort of book, it is just rather disappointing after reading the previous generation of books, which addressed similar topics but in a far more attractive manner.  The wit and whimsy have been replaced by the tedious mantras we hear from public service announcements and motivational speakers and internet gurus.  The wit and whimsy can reach the heart and mind of an over-teched and informationally saturated generation but the mantras will just bounce off like rain off an umbrella, so much have they been inundated since their first breath.  But that is the beauty of a book: a good one lives forever, especially in the hearts and minds of its lovers.  And happily there are enough god books in the series to keep the kids of this generation and the previous ones busy for a lifetime!

Killing the dream?

I'm dreading the start of the school year.  They spent all last year teaching my little guy to read and now I'm afraid (after speaking with other parents of older kids) they'll push him to read so much they kill his love for it.  I remember my English classes never inspired a love of literature with their choices of 'educational' material, things like 'Brave New World' and 'Animal Farm' for which my adolescent brain was not ready.  I just wanted a good story with enduring characters and a great plot, I wasn't looking for political metaphor guising itself as a novel.  It didn't enlighten my benighted brain but only managed to confuse me and turn me off to what should be good books.  Now it is even worse, how much and far they push them, demanding so many pages or minutes or words rather than letting a love of reading bud naturally, we throw these developing and delicate sprouts into an artificial hot house and demand they grow, NOW!  They are making it work and not fun, it should be a lifelong enjoyable habit, not just another assignment to check off the list.  The statistics on adult readers in the US are atrocious and this just might be a root cause (technology and other distractions is certainly another).  Let's fight against the machine and read because we want to, not because we have to, and let's teach our kids to do the same!

Summer reading list!

Here's an interesting summer reading list, hopefully your library has a few copies, mine doesn't!  Enjoy!

Is it real?

I read a little article a while back saying something about the reading experience being significantly different with a real book versus a tablet, and while I agree, for most of the penniless author-wanna-bes of the world, I think the ebook revolution surely beats the vanity presses any which way you look at it.  Mostly it has saved us all from becoming like an older gentleman I know, he's published a dozen books at his own expense and spends his life hawking them to unwary strangers (all the locals avert their eyes and speed walk in the other direction lest they be forced to spend another $20 to politely escape the situation!); sort of like when your niece is selling Girl Scout cookies except she's been doing it for 40 years.  But I've sometimes wondered if those books are 'real.'  If we suddenly entered a technological dark age, would there be anything left of our digital work?  But then the paper versions can be just as fickle, indeed, when the world burns, as it one day will regardless of your theology (on this the naturalist and the theologian agree) it will go up in smoke and all come to naught.  I guess there's only one Book worth considering as Real, one that will survive any impending apocalypse: Et verbum Dei manet in aeternum!

Small books, big ideas!

What are you reading this summer?  I just finished 'The Once and Future King,' and must now classify where it fits in my pantheon of favorite books.  It is one of those stories you can't just read once, indeed, you must peruse it again and again to even begin to understand it.  I guess it goes on the shelf next to 'The Man Who Was Thursday' and 'That Hideous Strength.'  Both books I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what they are trying to say.  Reading such books is a great way to keep your brain from getting rusty, but I'm not sure mine is ready for gymnastics quite yet.

Warning!

School starts again too soon, better get in a few more elective reading choices!