FIR is hosted by Katrina atCallapidderdays.
Every Wednesday this fall, Katrina will be posting a question about reading.
This week’s question: Share a special memory relating to books or reading — something you’ll never forget.
I have a lot of memories relating to books and reading but the best one I have involves my dad reading to us at the dining room table during dinner. He was an elementary teacher and then principal and was big into using picture books in the classroom. Whenever he went away to conferences he always managed to find little mom-and-pop type book stores and would come home with a pile of new picture books. He would usually read one or two to us. I loved listening to him read a story – he always used just the right expressions and as I got older I could see his passion come across when he read to us. He also used stories when giving homilies (he was a deacon in the Catholic Church) and was always able to find the perfect story to go with the message he was trying to convey.
While he’s now retired, he still has a good collection of picture books and can tell quite a few from memory now. His love of books and a good story is definitely something I have inherited and something I hope to pass on to my children some day.
What about you? Do you have a special reading memory — from your childhood, teen years, or adulthood — that you’re willing to share?
My dad hated that I read; I don't know if he wasn't (isn't) a good reader, or if he felt he worked hard and it irritated him to see me sitting still 'goofing off'. But I loved to read when I was a kid, from a very young age, and it always caused such tension. So when he'd rag on me to 'get your nose out of that book & get outside', I'd take my book, climb high in the big tree out front…and sit in the cool stillness of the leaves and read undisturbed and in peace.