Don't Forget to Read for Fun!

I have a special genre of reading material for trans-Pacific airplane flights. I call them “suck-you-in-one-end-and-spit-you-out-the-other-hours-later” books. The kind where you start the book and the next thing you know, you’re done, and half the flight is, too. 

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple was my most recent read from this genre. A friend recommended it to me about a year ago as sort of fluffy, but engaging and fun, and that’s exactly what it was, and exactly what I needed it to be as I flew from Okinawa to Tokyo to Los Angeles earlier this week. 

I didn’t want Alexander Hamilton—as interesting as it is, I don’t get lost in it because it takes too much brain power. I can only read a chapter or two at a sitting. And besides, the sheer size of it would take up my whole carry-on allowance.

I didn’t want Formative Walkthroughs, which is my current professional reading. That, too, was too much thinking. 

The moral of the story is two-fold:

1. Just like adults, kids read for multiple purposes, too. Maybe they, too, need to read a fluff book every so often. Just help them articulate all the reasons they read, why and when each is appropriate, and set goals for how they are going to keep themselves engaged as well as challenge themselves.
2. Take a break yourself this summer. Do some professional reading, do some stretch reading, and treat yourself to some that’s just easy and fun. 

And now I’m going to post this and go join the family. I’m at my folks’ house in Los Angeles. My sister and niece are here from San Jose. And within the next hour my brother and his family will be arriving from Ohio, and a daughter and her husband from Tennessee. 

Time to fire up the grill and get ready for the 4th of July weekend.