Reading

My bookshelf got a much needed makeover this week. It had gotten to the point where there was no more room to house books vertically, so I had taken to making horizontal stacks either in front of the vertical rows, or on top of those books.

It looked so messy. So cluttered.

There are still lots of books - too many, I'm sure. But at least there are empty spaces.

I'd like to be able to say this is the extent of our personal book collection, but it's not. We have books in the homeschooling cabinet, books in a closet and then there are the kids books....

I used to think that one could not have too many books. I took great pride in my bookshelves, thinking it was a reflection of me.

When my first daughter was born we set out baskets of books in addition to the many books that rested on her own bookshelves. I would go from garage sale to garage sale buying every book I could find to add to her library.

I wanted to create a reader. And I did. But it's not because of the hundreds of books she had access to. It's because we sat down and read to her often. It's because we took weekly trips to the library for story time and to check out more books.

Yes, it's important to give out little ones access to print, but it's even more important to sit down and read to them and with them.

Books do not create readers anymore than treadmills create runners. You must read to become a reader.