I can not remember a time I didn’t WANT to read. I can remember my older brothers going to school before me. We talked about what school was like. How did you eat lunch, what did you do with your trays? I was most impressed that they could read!
In those days, I followed my mom around the house as she did her routine. I would pretend to be a cat or play other silly games. However, when I realized my brothers could read and I wanted to read, I followed her around with a book instead. I incessantly asked, “What’s this word?” It became a family joke and a family story. I asked so much that I can remember it today, more than 50 years later. I must have been annoying. By the time I arrived in kindergarten (school FINALLY!). I could already read. I don’t know how much I could read or what my gaps were; I just remember being placed in the highest reading group.
I believe my mom had bedtime stories that she read to us every night. I say I believe because I honestly don’t remember it. However, when I had children of my own, I immediately instituted storytime as if it had just been a natural part of my life. We always went to the library. When we moved, the first place we found was the library. I copied that in my adult life, also. In my days – pre-Google, pre-internet – the library was the source for all information as well as a place to get lost in the stacks of books.
I was part of summer reading programs. I do not recall any prizes I might have won or missed. I recall vividly being irritated that I was reading along the books I loved and then realized that other readers were surpassing me in the “books read” category because they chose the youngest baby book they could find and read them all very quickly to inflate their list. I felt it was cheating.
The gifts that stick out to me from my childhood are books. I was a flower girl for my cousin’s wedding when I was 8 years old. She gave me a pop-up book of Jack and the Beanstalk. My aunt gifted me a hardback of Little House in the Big Woods. I loved that book so much that over the years I would buy the next book in the series until I owned the whole thing. Unfortunately, I bought paperbacks and they are now crumbling with age. I am not sure where Horton Hatches the Egg came from, but it has been dearly loved. These three treasures were given to me in my childhood and followed me around through many moves. I have lost a lot of things, but these three books I read to my own children — even as the books were falling apart. I still have them.
No one ever guided my reading. I can’t remember my Mom recommending a book to me particularly or even telling me not to read something too old or with “mature themes.” I was allowed to just wander the library and read at will. I had a school library and the coffee table at home. My Mom also loved to read, and whatever book was going was usually on the coffee table with a scrap of paper stuck in it for the bookmark. I read those too. I read magazines, and for some time, we had the Saturday Evening Post arriving at our house. I remember reading out loud for my definitely bored friends an entire humor piece from an issue. How could they not have enjoyed that? My mom did not read classics, and I just read whatever, but I did accidentally read some great books. I read David Copperfield, and once for a reading project in sixth grade, I read Gone With the Wind. I am pretty sure that I didn’t fully understand these books, but I remember enjoying them. I loved Agatha Christie and Anne of Green Gables.
I soon realized that if I was curious about anything I could read about it. I went through many phases. I was taking piano lessons and involved in band, so I read book after book about composers. At some time I became interested in the Renaissance. When I realized I was partially native american, I read a ton of books on different tribes. It was my side education.
Despite all this reading, literature classes were a struggle for me. I didn’t understand Shakespeare and Beowolf. I wasn’t sure they were speaking English. Without any guide to my reading, I had simply read things that tickled my fancy. I hadn’t really worked at reading much at all. I made it through my lit classes, but I did not develop a love for these texts.
In my early adulthood, especially as a parent, my reading continued, but often fell to easy biographies, some I would be embarrassed to tell you that I read. I was tired as a young mom and these became my easy entertainment. However, I read to my children incessantly. I enjoyed their picture books as much or more than they did. We chose to homeschool and I started to read aloud the living books recommended in the curriculum. I was introduced to Johnny Tremain, books by Jean Fritz, and even poetry – Shel Silverstein and more. It was a glorious time.
I also became a Christian, so reading the Bible and books about the Bible became important to me. Eventually, we started reading only the King James Version of the Bible. I will be honest, that took some work on my part. For a while, I kept a Bible with different versions side and side and went back and forth until King James began to flow and make sense to me. When my oldest arrived at our high school, she started encouraging me to read the classics. She had a list of the 100 best books to read before college. She was reading books like Les Miserable. I was quite impressed but didn’t make it to her level for some time. I remember the first time I attempted Pride and Prejudice, for me it hearkened back to my first KJV days.
I started buying classic books at my local thrift store. They were selling beautifully bound versions from estates at very reasonable prices. Even if I didn’t get them read, they looked fancy on my shelves. Eventually, I started reading through some of these classics. I still love to read a memoir and a great picture book, but I have expanded my reading. If I am reading about the Bible, I will occasionally pick up a Puritan author. The books are slow reads but so rich. I have read my KJV Bible in its entirety every year for more years than I can count. I have developed some discernment in my reading and definitely wouldn’t read a lot of those books my mom left on the coffee table all those years ago.
Reading and books have been a large part of my life all my life. I was privileged to be able to teach all my children how to read; some have picked up a love for it, and some have not. Now that I am a Titaw, I try to encourage my grandchildren with good books. Because as we all know — Titaw Reads