if not enjoying
a volume, put it down and
move on to the next
Don’t force it: If you’re not enjoying a volume, put it down and move on to the next. “I am a huge advocate for not finishing a book,” says Menzies. “If you don’t like a book, no one’s judging you. You’re not failing.”
In a reading rut? How to get back into reading for fun by Madeleine Aggeler
Ms. Aggler is quoting a Morgan Menzies, who is a literary curator and social media influencer.
I am not sure exactly what a literary curator and social media influencer is or does but there you are.
Ms. Aggler closes with Make it fun Finally, make sure you’re having a good time.
And again quotes literary curator and social media influencer Menzies who says, “Reading is something that should bring you joy. There’s a lot you can gain from it.”
Make it fun?
Far be it from me to differ or question a literary curator and social media influencer, but how does one MAKE something FUN for someone else.
I recall a passage in the biography of Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr., where the author states:
The men who came to the Holmes house to tea, to dinner — Emerson, Dr. James Freeman Clarke, Mr. Lowell, Mr. Appleton — never read a book because it was the thing to do. They read with passionate interest and with passionate interest discussed what they had read.
Passionate interest.
I put it to you that if you are passionately interested in something, reading about it, be it fishing, football or how coffee was brought to the US Army on France in World War 2 (and a history of the US ARMY Coffee Service in WW2 is fascinating), will be FUN.
I started reading right off.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t passionately interested in EVERYTHING and I wanted to read everything.
My parents bought the 1st and 2nd grade readers (real Dick and Jane books) when I was in kindergarten.
When I got to 1st grade, I asked the teacher, what else you got?
I remember in 8th grade I had to take a reading comprehension test and got called into the hall to be asked if I cheated as I scored higher on the test than mathematically anyone should have been able to score.
I will say that early on I also learned to start a book and say NOPE.
Sometimes it’s the opening language.
Sometimes the story doesn’t make it to the land of suspension of disbelief.
Sometimes it’s factual. I recently picked up a new book on the Nuremburg Trials after WW2 ( a book maybe prompted by the recent film) and on page two the author pointed out that the United States would be represented by Chief Justice Robert Jackson.
Well folks, it was Associate Justice Robert Jackson in Nuremburg and Chief Justice Harlon Fiske Stone stayed happily in Washington during the trial and that was as far as I got into the book.
So it was with some wonder when back in sixth grade I got my report card from Grand Rapids Crestview Elementary school.
The report cards at that time had three rows for marks.
Above expectation was row one.
Satisfactory was row two.
Unsatisfactory was row three.
We just used the short hand of saying did we get row 1 or row 2 or the dreaded row 3.
My Mom came home from Parent / Teacher conferences and handed me my card from Mr. Vanderwheel.
Behavior and all that was pretty much row three but the classroom work, English, Social Studies and Math were all Row 1 and Row 2.
At the bottom was one heading that was circled in red.
Reading.
I got a third row.
Mom let me look at at for a bit.
Then she said, “Mr. Vanderwheel says you spend most of the day with you nose in a book.”
I held out the card with my face one big question mark,
“But,” she said, “You have yet to turn in any book reports.”
Book reports?
We had to turn in two book reports a marking period.
One pagers with title, author, short synopsis and what you learned.
Well, what did that I have to do with reading I wanted to know.
It wasn’t my first time my lack of devotion to just-do-the-work and my outlook on education came into conflict.
All a book report, a REQUIRED Book report, did was rob my reading of all passion and made it work and took all the fun out it.
By this time I had read Tom Sawyer and when Tom whitewashes the fence and Mr. Twain wrote, ” … he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do,” I knew exactly what Mr. Twain was saying.
If the point was reading, what more did Mr. Vanderwheel want?
I mean, boy howdy.
From then on, once a month, I would grab the first book I found in the library, get a piece of paper and as fast I could, write the title, author, a paragraph about what the book looked like it might be about and what I liked about it.
Meet George Washington by Joan Heilbroner – this book was about George Washington and the many things he learned while growing up in Virginia and building his home at Mount Vernon that helped him as he fought in the Revolutionary war and was the 1st President. My favorite part was when he took his army in boats across the river to attack the Hessians at Trenton and Princeton. It is a good book and we should all read it.
I got 1st rows in reading.
There was something to be learned from this and I learned a lot in school but often the lessons I learned weren’t in any lesson planner.
No Haiku For You 