I read pretty quickly. When I was in grade school, I took a reading test that clocked me at over a thousand words a minute. Of course, these were short words, blip blip blip, and I can't truthfully say I remembered much of what I read for that test, even ten minutes later. Like Woody Allen once said, he took a speed reading course, and read War and Peace -- which, he thinks, was about Russia.
I don't read nearly that fast these days, but this evening, I read a book start to finish. Actually, I read it almost finish to end, then I went to the front and read to the almost finish, and skipped ahead to the end. It wasn't a thousand words a minute, though, because this was a small book -- one of my daughter's books, with a simple plot, larger than normal type, and the occasional illustration. The book was The Landry News, and it's by Andrew Clement. Here's one of the reviews I found for it.
One of the underlying themes of the book is that kids will do the right thing if you give them some guidance, and give them a chance. They may not do what you wish they'd done, and their take on what the right thing is might not square with yours, but they will usually try.
Its a comforting, and a comfortable, thought. I like it, and I liked the book.
3 comments:
I'll have to put this book on my 'must read' list. I'm always looking for guidance help along the way.
Its not a book that gives guidance, but rather one about what happens when you do. In other words, it doesn't give recommendations. And, because its fiction, things turn out perhaps a bit better than you might expect that they would, in real life. In fact, I said that to my daughter, and then regretted it; no points for saying that this isn't real, when its the way you'd like reality to be. Let her think that's possible, for a while longer. Who knows, maybe it will be.
But I did like it. I don't know (or don't want to think about) what that says concerning my depth of intellect. Sometimes, you just need comfort food, I guess.
I think I understood that by your post, I just didn't phrase it right. I like reading about the outcome of certain actions, to give me ideas and inspiration in what may work for us.
Hey, and I'm all for fudging things if it's going to benefit us in the long run. Our kids will find out soon enough, no sense growing them up to quickly with information you can get away with not sharing just yet.
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