What did you read?

Today, the day after Day to Read 2009, is the day we all recount what we read yesterday instead of blogs. Did you dive into a good book? A stack of magazines? The newspaper?

I have to admit that my reading time was not as much as I hoped for. I had a meeting at church last night so didn't get home until 9pm. Got the kids into their beds then settled on the couch with a glass of wine and Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm about the 1900 hurricane that decimated Galveston, Texas.

I'm just past page 100 and Larson, who also wrote Devil in the White City which I loved, is going back and forth between the storm forming over Africa, the Atlantic and now the Caribbean to the history of weather reporting and the life of Issac Cline. At one point he wrote that a catastrophic hurricane would never hit Galveston. We know he is wrong, twice now.

It was good to sit in a quiet house with a good book and lose myself. Just what I needed.

Did you get what you needed yesterday?

THANK YOU to everyone who promoted Day to Read 2009. You all made it much more fun.

Guilty

The proliferation of video games, internet sites and of course television have all been blamed for the downfall of reading. I would like to think that I have this ideal house in which only reading is done. No stupid electronic crap enters my or my kids' heads.

So it is with great embarrassment that I admit that one son plays his DS until he falls asleep. Another son listens to Elvis on his iPod. At least my 4 year old daughter pretends to play school and "reads" books to her imaginary class.

Another reason why I won't be on-line tomorrow is to remind myself that I too need to read. To show my kids how it is done.

What do you plan on reading Thursday?

Thursday is the Second Annual Day to Read in which I will keep away from all those social things I do on the computer and read a book.

Or maybe a magazine. Or several magazines.

On Friday last week we received a postcard with a gorgeous image of zebras. On the other side was a note from National Geographic saying we had a year's subscription courtesy of Amazing Guy's parents.

I was thrilled.

On Saturday we got three issues of National Geographic - October, December and January (not sure what happened to November). I was immediately taken back to being a kid and holding the perfectly sized magazine - bigger than a book but smaller than a regular magazine - and admiring the photography. Looking back on that I realize I was much more interested in the images than the words.

My boys grabbed these new issues and started showing me images and asking what was going on. One guy now just blurts out "who-what-where-when-why-how?" and if I miss one of those distinctive questions I will always get a follow-up "but I asked where!" (or when or why....)

So I'm looking forward to diving in and finding out the who-what-where-when-why-how. Not sure if I will know the answers but I will have some beautiful images to help me along the reading journey.

What are you reading on Thursday?

The power of reading

The kids were all sound asleep in record time. It was 8:30 and I was downstairs when little lady cried out from her room. She was yelling and crying.

I ran upstairs to find her sitting up in her bed, covering her mouth and saying something. I couldn't understand her at first.

"I turned pink!" she wept.

Just like in Pinkalicious, which we had read twice before she fell asleep.

I rubbed her checks, checked her belly and assured her she wasn't pink. Then she dropped back onto her pillow to cuddle under the covers.

Any books turned you a different color?

Do join in Day to Read on January 8, 2009. A group of us are turning off our computers (at least the times when we are on purely for fun) and opening a book, a magazine or a newspaper. Why? Read here to find out.

Day to Read 2009

January 8, 2009.

Please mark your calendar.

Because, again, I'm asking you a favor.

A year ago I asked folks to take the time they would blog and read something on paper instead. A book, a magazine, a pamphlet, the newspaper. Anything printed.

Why did I do this last year?

Because according to a report released last year reading books is linked to civic engagement. This National Endowment for the Arts reports that young folks aren't reading like they used to. Get this:

• only 30% of 13-year-olds read almost every day


• the number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004 - that is 1 in 5 kids don't read for fun


• Almost half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure


• The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes reading

According to Diane Gioia, the Chair of the NEA,

"The poorest Americans who read did twice as much volunteering and charity work as the richest who did not read. The habit of regular reading awakens something inside a person that makes him or her take their own life more seriously and at the same time develops the sense that other people's lives are real."

A year later, that quote still gives me chills. It shows that reading can transcend poverty, help people think beyond themselves.

That is why I'm asking folks, myself included, to take time one day in January to stop blogging - for the entire day or part of the day - and use the blogging time to read. Last year over 100 folks got in touch with me to say they were suspending blogging for the day to read.

So read a book. A magazine. A newspaper. Take the button and please paste it in a post as well as your sidebar (link back to http://denyingsoccermom.blogspot.com/2008/12/day-to-read-2009.html). Write about this. About what books, magazines, newspapers mean to you. Write a couple of posts about writings that have taken you to another place.

Then Thursday, January 8, 2009 turn off your computer and read. Then on Friday, January 9th, write a bit about what you read.

Thank you. Again.