Psst: Do You Read Books?

I greatly enjoyed reading Donalyn Miller's "The Book Whisperer" a while back.  I don't recall precisely how I came upon this, but the odds are that it was either directly from one of the brief reviews I have arranged to receive daily from a couple sources or one remove away from that.

Of course I love to read as a first principle.  It has been a passion from as far back as I can remember, at least early elementary school.  Probably even before that - I remember how exciting it was to have the bookmobile stop in our neighborhood, as I recall it right next to the last remaining major old-growth cedar stump left from the clear-cutting of the area in the parking strip a few doors north of our home.  Aside: I learned in the last few years that the poet Gary Snyder matriculated just a few blocks south in an earlier era.

I'm sure a big part of getting the reading habit was observing my bookish parents, who held books in very high esteem and never as far as I can recall ever offered any barriers to our reading.  I suppose if I had shown up with Marat/Sade or Lady Chatterley in grade school some discussion might have ensued.  But although I would not have found those volumes on the shelves at home, I have no recollection of any overt censorship.  That seems to me an admirable if seemingly a bit currently anachronistic parenting goal: foster reading skills and a love of books, then let go.  Not always easy!  Book Whisperer is pretty inspiring.

I guess reading about reading and bibliophilia is sort of meta-reading, and also one of life's pleasures.