Saturday, June 10, 2006

For the Love of Reading

I am a committed bibliophile. There is rarely a night that I go to sleep without first picking up a book and reading a chapter or two. I read while waiting at appointments, while sitting on the toilet, and while travelling in a car (but not while I am driving)!

Here is a link to Tim Challies' post on the same subject. If you only see a blank space, click on it in the middle of the space. I don't know how to change the colour.



He is a man after my own heart. I laughed when I read about his habit of walking a fussy baby up and down a room, while reading. I feelsorry for him that he is not a woman, because we mothers have a perfect excuse to read for hours on end, while nursing our babies.

I read a variety of books, from children's literature (my excuse is that I am preparing for homeschooling) to doctrine and biography. I like reading the occasional magazine, and I don't mind picking up Latin or French or Spanish books for a variety. It doesn't matter that I don't understand ALL of it...the fact that I can understand enough to make out the gist of the material gives me joy.

I think I have passed this love of reading on to most of my children. I often find them crashed on the couch with noses in books. It is a joy to know that my newly married son's favourite author is Francis Schaeffer, and I love seeing the back of his toilet piled high with theology books, which he reads just for the sheer pleasure of it.

Of course, as a homeschooling mom, I take great pleasure in the fact that I have passed on not only the love of reading, but that I actually taught my children to read. My youngest, Critter, a six year old, loves Calvin and Hobbes, and I often hear him giggling as he calls out, "Listen to this, Mom..."

Ah, the simple pleasures in life. Reading is certainly at the top of my list.

Janet