Find a Thread and Hang On
Mar 8, 09- (by Lou)
- 6 responses
- Family and Friends, Sober Salon
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Until my daughter was around six, I read to her every night in a bedtime snuggling routine of books and comfort. My son came five years after her; my daughter began reading on her own about the same time he was ready to lay his head on my shoulder, and listen sleepily to Charlotte’s Web, Peter Pan, and many other classics.
The pay off for those nights of reading to them, every night, no matter how tired or wrapped in my own problems, is two enthusiastic adult readers. The three of us are linked together by our books, even in times of argument.
My daughter is working on her PhD; my son is in prison for petty theft and probation violations due to his heroin addiction. When my daughter calls we talk about books, when I visit my son we talk about books.
My son is 26, and has been on the addiction, rehabs, jail, sobriety, relapse, jail, rehab treadmill for almost 10 years. Every time he is captive, in rehab or jail, I send books. I only send classics, not popular fiction or self help books. He finds bits of himself in John Singer, R. P. McMurphy, John Yossarrian, and Ralph and Jack of Lord of the Flies.
We have a joke, the son and I. I tell him at the rate he is going, he will have read the 100 greatest books of all time by age 30. Behind bars.
But when I connect with him through Lennie and George, the characters in Of Mice and Men, my heart lifts with gladness and hope. I see the son I know is still there.
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I love to read too and spent the same times with Annie curled up with books. I have to say Books are one of the true joys of my life.jeNN
Oh yes - the love of reading is something I delight in sharing with my daughters! I have a very old Rudyard Kipling (woodcust and all) that my children loved bedtime stories from, and now my grandsons… Landon’s bedtime routine includes “Goodnight Moon”
I will never forget the time when she was 12, my youngest - my “lost one” came to me crying and read to me to me aloud the parts of “To Kill a Mockingbird” that moved her… She was reading it because she liked pulling books from my bookshelf, not because it was required.
I myself started years ago to read the classics, and so have most, and also I read a lot of contemporary literature (The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver & A Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks… The Hummingbird’s Daughter by… - highly recommended) - and my daughters love browsing through and “borrowing from” my library. I believe books are for sharing
George Eliot… my personal fave… Middle March - The size is daunting, and daughters haven’t read it yet… actually, I don’t know anyone but myself who has!
Unfortunately, the won’t let her have any literature, classics or no…
I too read with the 8 and 6 year old almost every night. The 8 year old and I share our reading duties. He reads a couple of pages and then I. The 6 year old is just starting to read. It is something I will always cherish. I wonder frequently how long it will last. Hopefully through their high school years.
I often credit books for saving my life. Reading was something my parents never begrudged me, and my mom would frequently bring me to the public library to check out whatever struck my fancy. Not only was reading an escape, I learned who I wanted to be and about what people and morality were like outside my strict home through books. I would say then it should be no surprise that being a writer has been my dream forever, and it tickles me to think part of that job is to read read read.
I love that you share reading with your children. My son doesn’t care for reading all that much, and it makes me very sad. He likes comics and I can occasinally find a book that grabs his interest, but most of what I bring to him goes unread. I keep trying, though.
Lou: thanks. that was a wonderful post.
Athena: Middlemarch is my favorite book in the world too. Keep working on getting people to read it. So far I’ve convinced 3.
I did the same thing with my daughter, it was so important to me because I was denied books when I was a kid. I was heartbroken when she went through a phrase of not wanting to read just treading the popularity thing in school. I knew she had to work some of those issues out on her own. It was difficult though, I knew the child wanting the popularity and ignoring her brains could not lead to a good thing…
She did get it together. It’s amazing she never buys a single book (smiling) she keeps coming to get mine. Sometimes she reads them faster than I can stock them up or I read them myself. I never told her the last batch of 6 books I sent home with her I didn’t even crack the spine. Somehow my daughter reading means things are normal, they’re ok. I sense the same thing with Andrew hon. (Hugs)Indigo