I have a confession to make. I am a reading teacher, an early literacy specialist for my school district (to be precise), and I have forgotten how to read. Now you may be wondering, how the heck are you writing this blog if you don't know how to read? Of course, I still know how to read! My confession is that I don't read books for pleasure. Oh, I read plenty of professional books and my Amazon cart is always full of the next book I must read to make me better at my job, but it never has books in it that help me escape or fill my soul.
The reality of my hypocrisy hit me in the face over Christmas when my sister-in-law asked if I'd read any good books lately. There was a long pause as guilt washed over me when I had to admit that I only read professional books now. It was then that I realized that I had been lying to children, other teachers and myself about living a readerly life.
Over the rest of my winter break, the idea of not reading continued to fester. I started to make excuses for all the reasons I didn't have time to read. I'm a mom of a tween that needs carting around. I have a demanding job that requires me to do research so that I can support teachers. I spend my evenings doing things for my family. I workout in the evenings to fight the over forty fattening. I have trainings to plan and emails to return. All these sound like great reasons, right? The truth is I do have time to read, and I need to put down the stupid iPhone. I don't need to check Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I don't need to watch hours of Real Housewives.
I am failing as a wife, mom, teacher, person!
I told my husband what I'd been thinking about failing as human. He confirmed that I indeed have been sucking it up. (Don't worry, I like when he's honest.) It was then that I resolved to read at least one book per month for 2017 in an attempt to find the reader inside of me.
I asked the resident reader in our house, our 12 year old daughter, what I should read first. She told me about the book she'd just finished which was
Messenger by Lois Lowry (the 3rd book of The Giver series). She reminded me that I'd read the first two books a few years ago and I would really like this one because it tied the previous stories together. Sadly, I had to get her to tell me the gist of the other books to jog my memory.
No more excuses! With no time like the present, I did it...I started the book!
Stay tuned as I begin my search to find the part of me that I have lost...The Reader Inside.
