"Book Tag"

1. How many books have I owned?
My own personal books...about 100 maybe less.

2. What was the last book you bought?
An embarrassing little book I have dubbed "the bathroom book". It is a collection of very short writings called, "Guilty Pleasures". It is by a group of 7 or 8 ladies who had formed a writing group in St. Louis. Before that I bought "French Women Don't Get Fat".

3. What was the last book you read?
"French Women Don't Get Fat"--It made me want to go to France.

4. What are FIVE books that have meant a lot to you? (These are in order of when read - not favorite order)
Well these will have to be in the order that I remember them, who knows when I read them? Except the first one. I read it on a ski trip that I took to Colorado with my church group about 13 years ago.
These books I have read as an adult because that is when I truly became a "reader".

#1. NO WONDER THEY CALL HIM SAVIOR by Lucado --What an eye-opener that book was for me! It seemed to not only validate this "faith" I was supposed to have, it revealed who Jesus was.
#2. THE SINGER TRILOGY by Calvin Miller --The Mythic retelling of the story of the New Testament. It is pretty powerful. Stick with it to the end. You'll be glad you did.
#3. THE WONDERFUL SPIRIT FILLED LIFE by Charles Stanley --I'm sure this book has won no particular awards and it is not the big seller that Lucado books are. But it taught me lessons about the Holy Spirit that I had never before heard.
#4. & #5. THE SCARLET PIMPERNELL and THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO --Both of these books were read back to back and were the first classic stories I'd ever read. I read them about 5 years ago.
#6. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Susan Monk Kidd--one of the few adult books I truly read for fun and enjoyment. I read it last summer.
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Now that I have participated in my son's game of "Book Tag", I'd like to talk a little bit about some of my experiences as a "reader".

The family I married into is a group of avid readers. Teachers and college professors, this group of people could set up camp in a public library and be in "collegiate heaven". My husband's parents and grandparents were college graduates. They were also educators that put a lot of stock into the printed word. My husband reads constantly and he even took books to read on our honeymoon. I was insulted thinking the books would get more attention than I would. I was/am intimidated by their knowledge and love of books. The fact that they gave books as Christmas gifts and would even read them first was a brand new concept in gift giving to me. The conversations at my in-law's dinner table often included discussions about books that my husband and his family had read. Those were conversations I listened to with no connection to what they were talking about. Quite often I felt left out and bored.

At my parent's house there was talk about what was in the daily newspaper, the baseball scores or a new recipe my mom had gotten from one of my aunts. Mother was a housewife the majority of my life until I reached the tenth grade. She read recipes, pattern instructions for sewing, "Better Homes and Garden" and "McCall's" magazines. Daddy was a refinery worker. He taught an adult Sunday school class and I remember seeing him read not only the Bible, but also commentaries and other books as he prepared his lessons each week. My mother went to work outside of our home to help send my brother and me to Abilene Christian College. She worked in a local clothing department store where she became one of their most valued employees. Both of my parents were intelligent people. They were married during World War II. I suppose they liked to read, but they read for information and not pleasure like my husband's family often do.

I did not like to read as a child and even now it is not my favorite pastime. Reading put me to sleep and as a child, I thought it was extremely boring. My second grade teacher gave me a most boring book called, "Desert Animals". I cried as my dad sat beside me on the floor of our dining room and prompted me to read along with him. Reading caused me much pain and anguish throughout most of my elementary years. I felt like I was wasting my time with this mental torture. I owned a very few books as a child. My oldest brother was ten years older than I was and he loved reading. Once when he was in high school, he bought me a "Little Golden Book" named CINDERELLA. All I recall about having that book was how pretty Cinderella was in the pictures. I was the "baby" of my family and since my mom was a housewife, I had never stayed with a babysitter except for my grandparents. School was a traumatic experience for me. I started school a week after my sixth birthday and I didn't want to be there.

Learning to read isn't easy for a lot of children. I was one of those children. I almost didn't make it out of first grade. For that matter, I pretty much sweated passing every year in elementary school. At the start of first grade, my teacher gave the 6 or so children in my "group 3" reading group, a little set of alphabet flash cards. We were to take them home to practice letter recognition, a skill that most 4 and 5 year olds master before the first grade. When I gave the cards to my daddy to "test" me, I took out the ones that I didn't know. It surprised me when he knew some of the letters were missing.

My son and my husband have both admitted to not reading all the required reading in high school. I never read the required reading. Most of the time I read "Cliff's Notes". Not a very helpful tool when you haven't read the book. Somehow I got out of high school, and went on to graduate from Abilene Christian College with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree. Nine years ago to my utter astonishment, I earned a Master of Science in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Houston- Clear Lake. When I enrolled in graduate school I was put on probation because my college transcript from 14 years before revealed a barely passing GPA. I found that going back to school at age 40 was a lot easier than at any other time in my school career. I cared about learning and worked harder in my classes even though it was still challenging. Now I have been an elementary school teacher for 26 years and surprisingly, I have taught Reading most of those years.

I'm not sure why I thought I needed to write a bit of my personal history with reading. Except I wanted all of the avid readers that cut their teeth on Dr. Suess and are now reading all of the Harry Potter books and many other novels, to have patience with children that don't appear to like reading. It is NOT an easy skill for everyone to learn. Not everyone that learns to read will enjoy reading. Some children get put in the bottom reading group and struggle to put sounds and letters together to form words and meaning. I will say again, "It isn't easy." Don't take for granted that perhaps this enjoyable bit of recreation that was easy for you should be easy for everyone. Don't assume that a child is lazy or stubbornly disobedient just because they refuse to do their homework. How many tasks do you enjoy that are difficult for you to accomplish? Be patient and understanding with that child who finds it tedious to read. Encourage and praise their efforts and some day they will read because they want to and not because a teacher made them. Then perhaps when they are 52 years old, they will realize that through the years, they have read some pretty good books and actually enjoyed what they read.