You Don't Have to Read Everything Online!

694 Broadway

When I was in the third grade, my teacher felt that my reading ability was substandard. A few months into the school year, I began to walk around the corner with a couple of other students to the Winter Hill Community School to attend specialized reading classes not available at St. Ann's. It wasn't until a parent/teacher conference that my Father found out that I was leaving during the school day to improve my reading skills. He would have none of this and, before I knew it, I no longer had to line up at the door when the Mrs. Baker came to pick us up. This, however, didn't mean that I was completely off the hook, either.

Every night, after dinner and homework, my brother and I would read out loud to my father for 45 minutes to an hour. It was during this time that I was introduced to the classics... War of the Worlds, Tom Sawyer, Swiss Family Robinson, David Copperfield, and Huckelberry Finn. Reading to him Monday through Friday night, taught us to pause at commas, stop at periods, maintain a good reading tempo, and, of course, entertain my father for an hour. Secretly, I think he grabbed the opportunity to just get the two of us to read to him every night. Whatever the case may be, I'm eternally grateful for the fact that it was part of our school year routine.

I carried this love, actually, obsession with reading with me into high school, college and beyond. I think it was the underlying reason why I started a blog 3 years ago...so people would have something to read.

Since it opened, I have been stopping by The Book Shop in Ball Square (most recently on Sunday) to browse around and reconnect with tangible stories. I forget, sometimes, in my technological world how much I love books and how pristine they look when you first buy them. I'm so happy that Gil has brought this awesome place to Ward 5 and highly encourage all of my readers to stop by and take advantage of the many opportunities to sneak away from life one page at a time!