One Day, They Will Read Every Day

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”  - Margaret Fuller

If that’s true then I’m raising a house full of cows.

It’s not that my older two kids won’t read; it’s that they see it as work. I’ve said this before: all three of my children are bundles of energy and constantly on the move. To them, sitting down with a good book and tuning out the world represents a game they aren’t playing or a bike they aren’t riding.

And yes, I see the irony. The apples don’t fall far from the tree.

I see kids all the time with their nose in a book who take pride in the fact that they have finished the summer reading list by July 1. I listen to proud parents as they talk about their kids having read all the Harry Potter books and are working their way through the Hunger Games series. I smile and nod and comment about how great that is, all the while thinking to myself:

“Well my son can name the entire Red Sox starting lineup from 2004 and my daughter can spell the names of every character on iCarly.”

I have seen both of them connect with books in the past, but they are few and far between. I’ve realized that Ben loves funny books (he has probably read the Wimpy Kid and Big Nate books so many times that he could recite them verbatim) and dislikes fantasy (it was a struggle to finish “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”). Georgia is just starting to gravitate toward longer books and loves telling us when she’s finished another chapter. I’ve asked other parents, teachers and even the great ladies at for suggestions that will ignite that literary spark in my children; while I can get them to finish a book, I can’t make them love it.

This week, as I was decreeing that 20 minutes of reading was about to take place, they both groaned. I pleaded with them, saying that I wish I had more time to spend with a great story and tried to make them realize how lucky they were. And then I remembered…

They are my kids. I think back to when I was their age and I realized that I read what I had to and not much more. I rolled my eyes at homework assignments and cut corners where I could. And you know what? I grew up to be someone who, while not always able to make the time for it, loves being in the middle of a can’t-put-it-down-book. And the fact that I work in magazines means that I’m never without a pile of reading material on the coffee table or a beautiful glossy in my purse.

While they may not be reading fanatics and tend to choose shooting baskets or playing Clue over a good book, what’s important is that they read every day. And someday, I truly believe, they will do it because they find a book that they can’t put down… and then they’ll get it. I can’t make them love it, but I can make them experience it.

In the immortal words of Dr. Seuss, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

And with that, I will “go” and finish watching this week’s episode of “The Bachelor.” Just can’t figure out where these kids come from.