by Emily Schilling
EditorEver since I discovered my first-ever favorite book,
Curious George, in first grade I’ve loved to read. True, there was that spell in college when I took a hiatus from my books of choice to, instead, skim CliffsNotes of not-so-interesting required reading. But generally speaking, I am a book worm.
Lately, reading has become my obsession. Since last summer, I’ve been on a reading binge, eagerly speeding through one book after the next with no break in between. In fact, I’ve got a big box of books by my bed that I’ve been collecting — volumes that I’m anxious to pore over — and I’ve got stacks elsewhere around the house that I’ll read after that.
I credit my local library for motivating me to amp up my reading this past year through its adult reading programs. These programs are just like the children’s summer reading programs that have been around for years, but they’re geared for grown-ups. Incentives to sign up for the programs are not spectacular — a small candy bar, maybe a bookmark, and, most recently, a free book. But as adults, I don’t think the potential prizes are as important as just the mere personal challenge of reading as many books as possible. (In the past three weeks, I’ve read four books!)
Often, my daughter and I share books. I became one of the many middle-aged women obsessed with the “Twilight” series after “borrowing” Stephenie Meyer’s first book from my daughter’s bookshelf.
A few days ago, my 14-year-old said she wanted to read the entire set of “Harry Potter” books with me. Back in 2007, when the last book of that series came out, we read every one of those 784 pages out loud to each other, taking turns, page by page. We started reading together like that when she was in elementary school and revisited that tradition just a few months ago with one of her favorite books,
Flipped, which she thought I would enjoy (and I did).
Years from now, I know I’ll cherish these “big girl” reading times as much as I enjoyed reading
The Rainbow Fish to her when she was a baby. Although there were a few years in between during which reading was not my girl’s pastime of choice, now she’ll read for hours at a time, and I couldn’t be happier.
There’s nothing like a good book to transport you on imaginary journeys, fill your mind with new ideas, make you laugh or make you cry. By reading, we become better, more-rounded people.