Holding a Book in Her Hands

As a guest blogger, Lola Ward, retired English teacher, mom and grandmother, gives her view on the joys of delving into books and the importance of reading to children.

At a recent medical appointment the doctor made a comment about the hardcover novel I had brought with me to read in the waiting room.  He kindly suggested that I explore books that can be downloaded on a tablet.  When I told him that I still enjoy the feel of a book with pages, he just shook his head as though the thought was completely foreign to him.

That experience made me reflect on my life-long love of reading.  When I was a young child, we didn’t have electricity in the home.  I read by the light of a kerosene lamp.  In that small circle of brilliance I was transported to the world of horses through books by Walter Farley, to the suspenseful adventures of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, and to the inspirational biblical settings of novels penned by Lew Wallace.

As an adult, my interests evolved and I began reading the classics.   Although I am not a world traveler in the physical sense, through books I have been many places and met many interesting people who tell their own life stories.  Tennyson wrote, “I am a part of all that I have met; yet all experience is an arch wherethrough gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades forever and forever when I move.”  Through reading we are inspired and motivated to make our life all that it can be.

I am proud to say I’ve passed my love of reading to my children and grandchildren.  When they were babies, I read to them as I rocked them to sleep and, as they grew older, before they went to bed each night.  Books have always been an expected Christmas present.  My grandchildren will probably download most of their books and miss out on the physical handling I so enjoy, but at least they will be reading.  Oh, the places they will go!