Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The Need to Read

This article (sent by a loyal follower of the Feltre School blog) provoked what I think are some great questions: Why do you like to read? How often do you read? What do you like to read?

These seem like simple questions, but to me they are interesting because I believe I did not come to truly enjoy reading until later than most people (my mid to late twenties maybe), and I find that the older I get the more I enjoy it, love it. I came to it later because for so many of our formative years we are being told what we have to read and I didn't like much of it. It seems to me that once I was liberated from being told what I had to read, I started to read what interested me and started to see reading as more of an adventure of my own making.

While I do not read a book a day, I probably read at least one book per week. It's hard to tell because, like many of you I suppose, I am usually reading more than one book at a time. I like fiction, but also find I need a fair amount of non-fiction, especially biography. I read every day, in the morning and in the evening.

The Feltre Book Discussions tend to focus on classic or at least very well-known texts, and so I try to read whatever the monthly title may be, just to be sure I am maintaining a nod to my early teachers regarding what I "should" read. They weren't wrong, plus now I find myself often saying to friends "You know, you SHOULD really read..."

So, what about you? What does reading mean to you?