It wasn’t until I became a Library Media Specialist and was geeking out one day with another literature and tech fan that I remembered my roots of reading.
I can still smell my tattered and worn copy of Stuart Little. I can still see the sauce stained finger prints on the page corners from eating during my repetitive readings. My copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory actually smelled like chocolate because I read that every weekend I was at my dad’s and we walked to the Candy Castle. I carried those books with me everywhere and read them multiple times during my elementary years. Every time I received a gift from aunts and uncles; it was a book. I remember being gifted book sets at birthdays and holidays. Today, I still ask for books as gifts.
I used to beg my mom to take me to the library where I would roam the stacks. I’d pull books off the shelves and plop down right there to read them. Even when my friends would want to meet at the library to do homework, I eventually got left the group to roam and read.
My grandparents always had encyclopedias. I can clearly picture the silvery brown spines lined up on the built in shelf in the TV room. Everyone assumed I was watching TV downstairs. In reality, I was thumbing through those encyclopedias to answer whatever random question came to mind. Or I would just open it up to a random page and start reading.
And somehow, I have always landed a job that provides me with plenty of opportunities to read. In high school and college, I worked a road side farm stand where I spent my day, in between customers, reading. As a classroom teacher, I read. After I left the classroom and became a Responsive Classroom consultant, my travel time afforded me plenty of opportunities to read. Now, as a Library Media Specialist, I feel obligated 😜to read.
My husband learned very early on, that reading is my thing and that if he wanted to pass the time on the beach or during the weekends with me, then reading would be a part of it. It was pure JOY for me when he and I went to a local Ogunquit book store to buy his FIRST book during a trip to the Maine beaches.
Even with how reading has morphed with the development of technology, I am still perpetually reading. I still borrow books from my local library. I listen to books during my daily commute. I read blog posts and articles early in the morning or late at night. And of course, I read to my students as much as possible (in between teaching them some sweet media literacy skills).
As much as I am an introvert, I do still enjoy talking to other people. While reading appears to be solitary on the surface, it is social in disguise.
After reading, we are compelled to talk to someone about what we just read. How it made us feel, answer burning questions, clarify misunderstandings, or share our outrage or empathy. Sometimes, we just want to share our general excitement.
All of this is why I started creating What I’m Reading posters at the end of the last school year. I want to share my love for reading. I want others to read more and just read. I often read books that are not available in our school library and I am okay with that. Just read.
I have been posting these flyers on the doors to the library media center and have one in an acrylic sign holder by the circulation desk. I love about this, is that staff is approaching me about books that they are reading. I love that we are connecting with each other over books!
