My Reading Habits

     I would like to say that I have always been an avid reader, but in truth, my reading habits and preferences have fluctuated with the changes in my vocation, family, and personal interests. More accurately, at times, the demands of my life have eclipsed my commitment to reading.

     When I was young, I loved to read, nurtured by picture book read-alouds with my mother and silent reading hour with my family. The Emily of New Moon and Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery along with Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren engaged me as a preteen, but I also loved to read fairy tales and folklore. I was enraptured by the naturalism and beauty described by Montgomery and the magic of fairy tales appealed to my questions about human virtue and behavior. I read many other treasures throughout middle school that connected with my love of fantasy and my appreciation of good humor.

     The greatest hindrance to my reading in secondary school was finding great books. I remember reading all the books that my older sister was reading for her junior English class one year. I also remember reading through a two-volume collection of Sherlock Holmes novels that my father received for Christmas during my freshman or sophomore year. I was looking for books, and I learned to love literature because that was more available and accessible. Regrettably, as my high school courses became more taxing, I read less and less beyond my required school texts. A course in humanities during my senior year ignited my reading again, but my interests had become focused on Christianity. My reading followed suit. I read excellent books and treatises on the nature of God, Christology, and spiritual devotion throughout college. I would often find an author such as Richard Foster that I enjoyed, and I would read whatever books that I could find by him or her. This trend in my reading continued until I went to seminary, and once again I found myself primarily reading texts for my coursework.

     Of course, then I got married and had three children, and reading seemed to stop altogether. Perhaps the only book that I read for myself during those years of sleep deprivation, play dates, and recurrent ear infections was Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child – three times.

     Fortunately, as we discarded large pieces of molded plastic and sold off the cribs, I began reading again – this time with more diverse interests. I read powerful works of great literature like Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I read inspiring biographies like Toward the Golden Shore about Adoniram Judson. I tried to understand learning through books like How Children Succeed by Paul Tough and Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian. And sometimes I took on the problems of the world with books like Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind.

     I quickly realized that there were more books that I wanted to read than I had time to read. And so a few years ago, I began the habit of creating ambitious book lists for myself, usually at the beginning of the year. Although I do not always complete them, they make my reading more purposeful and fulfilling. I make sure that my diverse interests are well-represented on my lists: Christian faith, theology, education, literacy, and parenting because learning about these things is really what motivates me to read. I also include great literature and poetry because I have increasingly recognized the need for beauty, hope, and excellence in my life. I am still exploring new authors and new texts that captivate me, and I have now discovered children’s literature.

     Thanks to my children’s literature course, I have recently realized how much I enjoy children’s books. During these years of reading about education, faith, and parenting, I had also been reading children’s books – to my own children. I read books aloud, I used them to teach, and I delighted in them.  Then I enjoyed four months of discovering new children’s authors, and children’s literature has infiltrated my reading list. And I’m a little worried that children’s books might soon overwhelm the others!

     Perhaps that is the joy of reading. I can find great books of great quality for whatever I am motivated to read. For me, my interests have evolved over the last several years, and they may certainly change again. Today my list tips toward children’s literature, but next year, it may be focused on literacy and reading disability. I will keep carrying an extra book in my bag – just in case. And I suspect that I will continue staying up too late to read because the best books really are irresistible.