by Susan G. (crazydoglady)
As a teenager my life was not always the most enjoyable. My mom was divorced from my stepfather, my younger brother (3-1/2 years younger) was in a lot of trouble all the time and my baby brother (7 years younger) had a sleep disorder that made him stay up all night and be a nightmare to get up for school in the morning. Since my mother worked a mandatory fifty-two hours a week plus the extra time she felt she had to put in to be sure the store was run with the efficiency she required, I spent a great deal of my time caring for my brothers, cleaning and cooking.
Books were my safe haven. I would spend hours sitting on our back porch reading and dreaming that I was living the lives of all the characters in these books. I read every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy mystery, but quickly outgrew the draw of the young adult series.
Agatha Christie became one of my all time favorites. The Orient Express was the first one I read. After that, I was hooked on mysteries forever. Her writing style took me a bit to get use to, but once I hit the forth chapter, I was rocking.
After reading all of her stories, I scoured the library for every mystery I could find. Still to this day, I look for the mental stimulation and puzzles that Agatha Christie offered me during a time of need.
It hurts my heart when I hear a young person state that they hate to read. I recall how I was never bored, never without something to do and always had a friend hidden between the pages of the current book I was reading.
I have a cousin whose son told me he does not like to read. So I created a reading challenge. I find a book I think will intrigue him, read it, mail it to him and then he must send me daily messages about where he is in the book and what the book is about. We have some awesome conversations. It is funny, he still tells me he does not like to read, but gets very excited when we talk about the book he is currently reading.
We have shared The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini, and the Theodore Boone series by John Grisham. I have enjoyed each of 
these and my cousin has been very involved in the discussions.
I may not instill a deep love of reading in him, but I feel I am instilling the appreciation of a good story.
I hope that each of you get to share a love of reading with a young person. There really is no better accomplishment!
Tags: Book Lover's Week, Book Recommendations, Book Suggestions, Members
When my daughter entered the sixth grade she brought home a handout that said each student must read 1 million words over the school term. When I first read this I thought it was a staggering number! I started a book list for myself and counted the words I was reading; 1 million words was less than 2 months for me!
I stared this list as encouragement for her, you know the we’re-all-in-this-together approach, but it really didn’t work for us. Getting her to enjoy reading is like pulling teeth! Fortunately she loves to write and usually does so to the tune of about 2000 words each day. This (at 15 now) has awarded her a huge vocabulary, but I still wish I could find a way to get her to read more! Loved your idea by the way.