Book Worms

Reading was a huge part of my life growing up. My parents read to us constantly. And not just picture books, lengthy novels. My dad would read to us in the living room at night. We didn't have TV, a computer or a phone when I was little so there seriously wasn't anything else to do. He'd read, and have us take turns reading. By 8 years old I was reading books like the Lord of The Rings Trilogy, 20000 Leagues Under The Sea and Mysterious Island. My mom would take us to the library for fun. My and my sister had our own library cards and my mom had to sign something that allowed us to check out more books than "normal" for kids because we would go through them so fast.

I still read constantly. Usually multiple books at a time. I'm a fast reader. I read the entire Twilight Series over a weekend. Working at Borders was my dream job because if you're an employee--they let you borrow books for free! New fancy books that the library doesn't have!

A lot of girls talk about how they want to marry a Doctor or Lawyer. I wanted to marry an avid reader.

Then I started dating Jerad. He used to be not-so-much about the reading. When I say "not-so-much" I mean that one time he proudly told me he had only ever read two books on his own free will in his entire life. Somehow I recovered from the shock and we continued to date. I did however ask him not to share that little tidbit with my family. I thought they could accept me dating a convicted felon before they would approve of someone that had read two books ever.

Luckily, after a lot of reading out loud together at night he's come around. 98.7% of the time when we would go to see a movie, I had read the book that it was based on. Then I would complain about how the book was so much better. After we started reading together he started to believe me. Now he'll ask for books and enjoys reading on his own. Which is great because now he understands when I just want to bury my head in a book and not talk for hours.

When I got pregnant with Marshall I was so excited that now I would have an excuse to buy picture books! Oh picture books. I loves me a good picture book. I would always volunteer to lead story time at Borders because while other employees felt it was a punishment, I saw it as an opportunity to hopefully excite other kids about reading. Surprisingly Jerad was really excited too. When we registered for baby stuff, we registered for a LOT of books. We spent hours at Target reading the kids books and picking out ones we liked. Jerad wanted to have a book shower for Marshall instead of the normal Baby Shower. We didn't end up doing that, but are planning something similar for his first birthday.

For only being 5 months old he already has the beginnings of quite the library. We read to him and he seems to like it. Later on as his attention span grows I'm sure he'll love being read to. Right now he'll sit through most short books and likes looking at the pictures and "helping" turn the pages. He loves it when we make funny voices or read in sing-songy voices.

You can imagine how excited I was today when I discovered Dolly Parton's amazing Imagination Library! They will mail your child a brand new, FREE, age appropriate book every month from the time they are born until they turn 5. And not those crappy kids books that seem like they were written by a 4 year old that doesn't quite grasp the English language. Real books, like The Little Engine That Could. If your community participates, they pay for the books and mailing. And guess what? It's available in our county!

Excited does not begin to describe how I felt. I registered Marshall this morning. I can't wait for us to start getting a book every month, what a fun thing for a kid to look forward to!