Reading is Addictive

(This entry was originally posted yesterday but I added to it this morning)

I can't think of anything else that's better to be addicted to. I LOVE TO READ!!! I have missed reading so much, especially since I had the baby. I just started reading again now that he's mobile. Of course I still need to keep an eye on him but I can let him play for the most part and I just check in on him.

I started off by reading Alisa Valdes Rodriguez's last book, "Playing with Boys" and then Amy Tan's "The Opposite of Fate" and I'm almost finished with that.

Now I've been reading the Star Wars trilogy and I am so addicted. It's probably mainly because it's such an easy read. It's written in a very simple language and the only parts that get tedious to read are the parts about spaceship battle. Other than that I love reading this book. It is such a great story! I just finished "The Empire Strikes Back" and I'm about to start on "Return of the Jedi." I literally can not put this book down! When I'm not reading it I'm thinking about it. Weird! I haven't felt this way about a book in a long time and the funny part about it is that I've read it before.

I can remember when my love for reading and for words began. First of all I was born into a house of readers. I come from a house of five girls and I'm the youngest. There's a nine year gap between me and the fourth sister so by the time I came around my sisters were pre-teens and teenagers. They were reading machines and they weren't really nerds either. They were pretty cool semi-popular girls with a lot of friends and they all loved to read. My mom and dad both love to read too. Of course my mother read the novels and my father reads the dictionary and encyclopedia. Two very different tastes in literature! Anyway, we all read.

Which reminds me of something a woman told me recently that I found both surprising and alarming because it made me realize how much parents do not read to their children. This lady I know asked me if I read a recent article in one of our magazines about teaching children. I told her I hadn't.

She told me, "Oh you have to read it especially since your children are so young. I wish I had read it when mine were small and maybe I would have done things differently."

I was curious so I asked, "Like what?"

She went on to tell me how the article talked about the importance of reading to your children from the time they are babies. I tried not to look too shocked as I digested her words but I had to tell her that I do that already and that I have since Miranda was born.

Then I asked her an important question, "But do you and your husband like to read?" and she admitted to me that they don't. Well there you go!

I know that my love for words does not guarantee that my children will love to read too but at least I hope that by my reading to them now and by them seeing me read I'm inculcating a love for books.

It all started for me personally in elementary school when I learned to read in kindergarten and I started checking out books. I loved reading and my librarian recognized that love and encouraged it. I also remember when the Bookmobile started coming to our school and we were able to check out books from the Houston Public Library. That's where I discovered Nancy Drew and Beverly Cleary books. I didn't care that they were set in the 50's or 60's. They were still stories that a little girl could appreciate despite the time period.

I'm glad the kids are growing up and I can start reading again. I missed it! I'm looking forward to reading again. My next book is Amy Tan's "The Kitchen God's Wife."