On Reading

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." -Mark Twain

There are certain things that I just plain love to do for the pure and intrinsic joy they give me. Most people that know me know that I love playing the piano and writing. They might also suspect that teaching and learning, especially in my field of History, is something that gives me that kind of joy- I can get caught up in planning lessons and grading and lose track of time just as easily as I can composing. Something else I love in that way, and felt like giving a bit of time to in this here blog, is reading.

The first time I received any kind of public recognition for anything was, in fact, for reading. When I was...5? 6? I don't remember for sure...I joined my local branch library's summer reading program and read a ridiculous number of picture books. I got my picture with the librarian in the paper for it.

The next time I got myself in the paper, a year or two later, was for much the same thing. My mom was leading some community event or other and there was a photographer there. I had no interest in whatever it was my mom was doing, so I sat out in the lobby with my stack of library books. The photographer thought I looked cute curled up in the chair with a book and snapped another picture of me. It ended up in the paper with a quote from my mom about how I had read about 100 books that summer.

I haven't stopped.

The journey hasn't always been easy though. Frankly, my schooling did a pretty good job of almost stamping out the joy and education that reading gives me. By the time I reached high school, I had become so frustrated with the seemingly endless stream of tests and quizzes asking every minute literal detail from whatever work of supposedly great literature we had just read (and with the seeming irrelevance of said works of literature), that I very nearly did stop reading for pleasure. I just read those seemingly pointless books that my well-intentioned teachers were forcing me to read, and then went home and found other (in retrospect, considerably more pointless) ways to occupy my time.

It was a little easier for me to enjoy reading again in college, but only a little. I chanced revisiting books like To Kill A Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye and found that they were considerably more profound and relevant than when I had initially encountered them at age 14. Academia, though, teaches a particular way of reading that, I think, eats away so much of the pleasure of it. I became adept at consuming massive quantities of text in a very short period of time, extracting arguments and supporting details and never stopping to sit and just digest every single word and let the beauty of the language wash over me. Worse, after all the homework got done and I tried to curl up with books like, let's say, The Fountainhead or Brave New World, I just couldn't get into them. Literary novels like these don't really have an argument and details to extract in the way that a book like, let's say, Manning Marable's Race, Reform, and Rebellion: The Second Reconstruction and Beyond in Black America, 1945-2006 does. Novels are pure story, a place for your spirit to escape to and become engrossed in while your worldly body rests on a comfy sofa in front of a roaring fire as the snow falls gently outside your windowpane.

A year or two ago, I had lost the ability to do this. I'd read a page or two, get frustrated with the lack of any immediately obvious point, and then go to my computer and see what the latest three facebook statuses were. And, the viscious downward spiral of Twitterosis continues.

Now that college is mostly a memory, though, I am pleased to say that I have once again regained the ability to sit and read for an extended period of time, for no real reason more or less than that pure and intrinsic joy of it, again. I just was blessed with a glorious two week vacation at home in Western New York, and the one thing I probably did more of than anything else (well, besides planning lessons for the new semester that starts in about 33 hours) was curl up with a good book and read. I started and/or finished seven wonderful and diverse books in those two weeks. I recommend them all, for various reasons. The list is below.

1) The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauf. This classic, the first in the Oxford History of the United States series, is filled with 700+ pages of dense text that can't be bigger than a size 9 or 10 font and answers any question anyone could ever possibly have about the circumstances surrounding our country's founding. (Alright, I'll admit it...I did skim parts of this one. But only parts!)

2) No Greater Love by Mother Theresa. In this simple and quick read, Mother Theresa shares some of her wisdom on topics such as prayer, love, poverty, and forgiveness. I couldn't read more than a sentence or two without feeling simultaneous deep humility and inspiration.

3/4) Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 and Lighting Their Fires: Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World, by Rafe Esquith. Rafe is my new hero and inspiration when it comes to teaching. Esquith has spent the last 35+ years teaching 5th grade at an inner-city school in Los Angeles. None of his students speak English as a first language, but that doesn't stop them from learning every subject (yup, even science and social studies and art and music and PE), traveling the world, and putting on a full-fledged unabridged production of a Shakespeare play (complete with live rock music accompaniment) every year. In these two books, Esquith shares some of his witty wisdom and profound insights about teaching (TLYHOF) and parenting (LTF). Anyone who works with children in any capacity should take a look at these (and Rafe's first book, There Are No Shortcuts, which I read earlier last year).

5) Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic. The author of this book was born limbless (i.e. no arms and no legs), but that hasn't stopped him from traveling the world to share his inspiring message of hope and love, stopping along the way to do things like learn how to surf and star in a lovely little short movie ("The Butterfly Circus," which I highly recommend you google and watch online immediately). In his book, Vujicic shares his story and how things like finding your purpose, having faith, and being resilient when confronted with inevitable failure are essential to living a well-lived life and achieving your dreams. Once again, I could not put this page-turner down without feeling simultaneous deep humility and inspiration.

6/7) The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King. I've been a King fan for years- he has a way of taking the most ridiculous scenarios and writing about them in such an infectious way that you can't help believe that you are watching them actually unfold. These two books are the first in King's seven-part epic "Dark Tower" series. I first tried to read The Gunslinger a couple years ago and just couldn't get into it. Upon mostly overcoming Twitterosis and regaining my ability actually read something for fun, I figured I'd give it another shot. On second reading, the first book turned out to be a solid introduction to the world of Roland, the last gunslinger in a world that has "moved on." I liked it, but it still isn't my favorite thing King has ever written; it felt like he was trying a bit too hard to be "literary." The Drawing of the Three however, has been brilliant so far (I'm about 2/3 of the way through). King stripped away the first book's pretentiousness and instead does what he does best- tell a pure and engrossing story. I won't give any of the plot away, but suffice it to say that I have really been struggling to put this one down.

My students are going to read. And if I can do anything about it, they're going to enjoy what they read, damn it. However I go about achieving this goal, I hope I don't school my kidlets into not reading rather than educating them into it. Reading has so many benefits, for me and for anyone else who takes the time to set aside their Twitterosis long enough to sit down and actually read a book. (As for me, I still like reading real books...you know, the kind that are actually printed with ink on paper. I was a long, stubborn holdout on getting a cell phone and I imagine I'm going to be much the same way when it comes to trading my excessive quantity of books for a Kindle).

I guess I'll concede that vociferous reading does have a couple of downsides. First, not many people do it, so you're liable to be mocked, ridiculed, ignored, or labeled as a "nerd" or a "geek" whenever you decide it's high time to curl up in the lobby with a stack of five tomes (I've learned to just take such treatment as a compliment). Second, it can be a bit hard on your vision if you don't learn how give your eyes a rest every now and then; I'm not very good at that and seem to grow a bit more nearsighted every year. Still, all in all I'd say the trade-offs are worth it. People who read learn how to slow down, focus, concentrate, and commit to something more lasting than the latest Twitter trends. In the process, us readers gain so much knowledge and understanding, in so many different ways, about this little thing called life. As a result, I believe we are able to live better, richer, more fulfilling little lives.

And besides, it's just plain fun.