By Scott FitzPatrick
Apparently you are now an amazing oddity akin to a Three Eyed Monster… If you read.
During the long weekend, while preparing my class plans for the upcoming month. I had the internet radio set to Fox News (I know what your thinking but you can’t deny the people at Fox News are very entertaining and sometimes borderline comical) while listening to the broadcast, I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard this amazing statement, delivered with breathless excitement:
“ Coming up next — we’ll interview a women who read a book a week for a year and has written her own book about the experience”
What the heck!?! I’m an avid reader who easily reads 3 or 4 books a month. However my mother was a reading machine. When I was young I remember her often reading an entire book in an evening, easily four or five books a week. On the last Sunday of every month we would head to the local flee market in Stittsville with a box of books in tow to trade with the “used books” vendors.
Reading is like exercise for the mind. It strengthens your thought process and stretches your knowledge pool. If you have children you want them to see you reading. They need to hear you talk about what your reading. This will help them build strong habits essential to future academic and vocational success.
Historical anecdote; The town leaders of Franklin, Massachusetts, once wrote and asked Ben Franklin for a donation so they could buy a bell for the church steeple. He sent money with this note. “I’m honored you have named your town Franklin and a donation is enclosed. However, I suggest you start a library with it rather than buying a bell. I prefer sense to sound.”