Reading has always been a huge part of my life. My mom read to me every night when I was young. She would read Golden Books to me so much that by age 4 I had most of them memorized. My mom told me that I used to shock people by "reading" the book at that age. I was a pretty solid reader by first grade and always in the advanced reading groups. I remember reading Black Beauty in the second grade and felt for the first time the magic of disappearing into a story. From there I was hooked and I was never without a book. I even had a special chair in our front room that I would sneak off too to read and when I was grounded I could care less because it was just a good excuse to lay in bed and read. As an adult, my reading preferences have changed but I still have that special chair that I read in. I sometimes become so involved in my book that I have no idea what is going on around me. My husband knows that if my nose is in a book than he is almost invisible to me. My love of reading was the main force behind me wanting to become a librarian. So many kids these days don't enjoy reading and I want to pass on the magic of books to a future generation.
When it comes to the future of reading, I am confident that the library is not going anywhere. Books are a means of escaping the daily grind and people are always going to need that escape. The form the book comes in may change but literature will always be around. I still prefer the physical book in my hands but know that I am going to eventually have to try an ereader. I have a few authors that release short stories between novels only in the electronic format.
On a crazy note, I would love to have a machine like Redbox distribute the libraries DVDs and Video Games. Most days I feel like a blockbuster employee and not a library employee. We have to keep many DVD discs behind the desk because of theft so most of my day is retrieving and replacing discs. If there was a way to have all of these in a machine where people scan their library cards and pick the movies or games that they want, it would really give me time to work on more important things. Of course, we all know that this would never happen but a girl can dream right??
I like how you always liked to read and had a special chair to sit in to read. I liked Black Beauty also and the Little House on the Prairie books. It was nice meeting you last week. I told another Amanda that in the class too. I just realized later that there are two Amanda D's in this class. Have a great summer.
ReplyDeleteI like the special chair too.
ReplyDeleteI'm debating about the Redbox idea ( I know you're staying DVDs and videos but would the idea work with books. Maybe, maybe not, what do you will all the popular books like Hunger Games or Wimpy Kid. Keep them at the main desk or storage? I know that's what we do with all the Harry Potter books).