I'm presenting a workshop at the
Mississippi Reading Association conference tomorrow. It's called
Books Are Ice Cream Not Broccoli, and I'll be talking about how to get reluctant readers to read. I'm something of an expert.
Because I'm a reluctant reader myself. I like my books to be fast-paced, if not, I tune out. Although I read a lot as a kid, once I became a teen and had a list of required reading, I stopped reading for fun, and didn't start back up again until my mid-twenties. Now I can't imagine
not reading...
How about you, YA Sleutheri? Have you ever stopped reading?
As you're reading this, I'm on our bi-annual pilgrimage to the old country (that would be the Netherlands for me). There's some significant driving involved, and then there's the epic flight.
When I think of road trips, I think of Willie Nelson (and my dad belting the 'On the Road Again' tune), and Tom Petty for some reason. Maybe it's the whole American classic quality of his music.
How about you, YA Sleutheri? Any favorite road music to share?
For me, it's Pippi. As a redheaded freckly girl who liked to daydream, I loved this book. I slept upside-down in my bed, and dreamed of living in a house with a veranda (that's a porch). This book is still The Book for me.
Interesting story: my mom loaned it to someone who forgot to return it. My mom was frustrated (see my love for said book above), and always hoped she'd find it.
Years later, she found it at the local secondhand bookstore--no lie. It was 25 cents. My name is still written inside, in careful cursive letters, including my old address. Fate boomeranged this book back, and Pippi sits on my shelf again. And I still hope to have a veranda one day...
How about you? What's your favorite children's book?
Remember how I asked you all for advice on stuff to do to reward myself? Well, I took all your good ideas and had a little micro-vacation.
First, I bought a sundress. We drove to Florida (it's only two hours to Pensacola's non-swampy beaches!), and I sat and did nothing for a few hours.
It was awesome. I highly recommend doing nothing, even if you don't have a Florida handy.
Then I built a sandcastle with my nine year-old. I read Elle Decor and picked an architecturally fantastic house I'll never own, including a seven thousand dollar sofa.
We ate pizza with bacon (because we like to keep it real--but artisan pizza, because we're also a little snobby), and tried to hook up the DVD player to the hotel TV, but alas, no dice. So we watched Storage Wars, which my kids are now addicted to.
The next day, I climbed this lighthouse...
For this view. Beautiful, no? I was complimented several times on the sundress, which is always nice.
Then I found this house, and mused that maybe it's even better than that house from Elle Decor. See the little alien in the doorway? Pretty cool.
And after some awesome BBQ (you can tell vacation means food for me), we drove home in time to watch the cats wake up from a two-day nap.
It was the perfect little break, and I vow not to let so much time pass before doing something like this again.
So how about you? Have any vacation or just general fun planned to give yourself a pat on the back?
I'm a big fan of (fictional) crime TV. Cop shows, amateur sleuths--I love a good mystery or crime show. But there are those cliches that make me cringe. The redheaded rhymes-with-witch. The evil Russian mobster.
The chase through a commercial kitchen!
That one has to be my most-hated cliche. There's usually some low-paid sap the cops are chasing, while pots fly and food (carrots, usually, for visual effect) goes everywhere, and then we end up in an alley with a dumpster.
The sap turns out to be just a dish-washing (or short-order cook) pawn--extra cliche points if he's worried about his expired Visa. The commercial kitchen chase is so unoriginal, I can predict the scene down to the second.
So tell me, YA Sleuthians. What is your most-hated TV cliche?
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What's funny is that I read a ton before high school and my pace - while it never stopped - slowed waaaaaay down during high school. And, yeah, I think a great deal of it had to do with the required reading list. Then I hit college and the reading train hasn't stopped since.
Nope. I have always read. The pace speeds up and slows down but is pretty steady. So too my kids and husband. My grandson seems like a reluctant reader though. Have a book to recommend for a six year old, just learning to read?
High school is such a drag, reading wise. You're trying to have a social life, and there's already so much reading for school.
Patti: Try SKIPPYJON JONES (pretty funny) and the BAD KITTY series--not sure if they're too hard, but you can read together, maybe. BIG NATE and CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS are good too.
Funny is king with reluctant readers (gross too, sometimes :-) Reading together is a great way to make it more of a social thing, thus enjoyable. Shel Silverstein is fun too and holds up well for today's kids, and it's short.
During the time I was going to college full time and working full time, I only read fiction during breaks. But, for the most part, I enjoyed the reading for my classes so I was still reading a lot.
If I ever stop reading altogether, have me checked out because something is drastically wrong. ;-)
Hehe :-)
Fleur, like many others I read a lot in my teens, as many as three paperbacks a week that I borrowed from the local circulating library. I used to read books at random. It was a while before I rediscovered the joys of reading, with discpline, and I now make it a point to read a minimum of three books by each author unless it's a Christie or a Wodehouse. My problem is I read across all genres, except romance, so I miss out on reading more books by the same author or reading new fiction in the market. Besides, I also hop from one writer to another who have absolutely nothing in common. For instance, I read a couple of westers recently and right now I am reading READING LIKE A WRITER by Francine Prose and THE PEARL by John Steinbeck. There is no straight path to reading books.
I love how eclectic your reading is, Prashant. One of my new year resolutions is to read more outside my 'box.' I bet you never get bored :-)