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I was fortunate, although I didn’t believe it at the time, to be raised in a home without a television. To entertain ourselves, us kids played board games and card games, enjoyed outdoor activities and sports, played musical instruments and sang, invented and performed skits, learned crafts and hobbies, raised livestock and trained pets, and talked to each other. We also became voracious readers. Mom and Dad made sure we knew the alphabet before we went to kindergarten, and they made sure we became proficient readers in the years to follow. We were taught to read phonetically. Mom and Dad would come home with boxes of books from library sales, yard sales, flea markets, and book fairs, and the boxes would be emptied within seconds. We started buying and collecting books and magazines at a young age to build our own libraries. Today my library is around 4,000 volumes. In many families their status symbols are bigger cars, designer clothes, new and chicer (yes, that’s a word) furnishings, and more and more expensive and exotic vacations. In our family, one of our main interests is each other’s libraries – and the knowledge that is acquired by using these libraries. When our family gets together we enjoy discussing and debating history, politics, theologies, medicines and therapies, home economics, finances and investments, and the fine arts. We don’t find this highfalutin. We find this interesting, relevant, important, and normal. Maybe tonight you might turn off the TV and sit down with your child and a book, and ask him to read to you. Most kids would love the attention. If he doesn’t want to read – maybe it’s because he cannot read. If his school has not taught him to read, then it’s up to you. His future is in your hands. *a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (92) *The book is man’s greatest triumph. (2087) (Louis L’Amour) *I cannot live without books. Thomas Jefferson (2859) *The books must survive. (2253) (Rabbi of Haarlem) (From The Hiding Place, by Cory Ten Boom. When the Netherlands were being overrun by the Nazis, and the Jews knew they were about to be destroyed, the Rabbi took his books on Jewish history to his Christian friend, Mr. Ten Boom, and asked him to hide the books until Nazism was defeated.) * Reading aloud to your children is the single most important activity for learning to read, and reading is the key to success in school and life. (1735) (National Institute of Education, Commission on Reading) *Words are the clothes we dress our thoughts in. To read is to shop for a new wardrobe. Daniels (60) (Reader’s Digest Magazine) *The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking. Christopher Morley (2254) *There are no faster or firmer friendships than those between people who love the same books. (2093) (Irving Stone) *When you sell a man a book, you don’t sell him twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue – you sell him a whole new life. Christopher Morley (2341) *I know how busy you are in your library which is your paradise. (197) (Desiderius Erasmus to Bishop Fisher) *Illiteracy is censorship unrivaled. (1848) *The man who will not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read. Mark Twain (2252) |