Last night’s book discussion in Dr. Sarah Donovan’s Healing Kind Book Group was Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf. Whether you are a teacher, a parent, a reader, or any combination of those roles, you would likely find strong points of identifying with the author – perhaps both agreeing and disagreeing with ideas even in the same chapter!
Each month, I enjoy the lively discussions of this group. We gather and bring a passage to discuss on our Zoom call. Denise Krebs of California led us this evening. Mo Daley of Illinois liked the quiet eye – the observant part of the reader that takes in details, and Sarah Donovan of Oklahoma liked the idea of cognitive patience – – attending with consciousness and attention to a rhythm that allows insights to unfold. What resonated most with me were the fostering of empathy and refining of critical thinking skills as readers use their eyes to take in whole new worlds through words. Every few pages, I’d marked a passage and stuck a Post-It bookmark tab on the side of the page to flag my favorite parts.
So much of our brain is active when we are reading – it’s performing miracles we don’t even realize are happening, lighting up the night sky during a thunderstorm with all of its lightning sparks and flashes.
To readers everywhere: pick up a book and savor the magic of reading. You are blessed to be able to make sense of print, to consider and contemplate it, to meditate on the ideas and to add layers of new perspective, and yes – even to revise your position because a book presents a case you may have never considered.
Be blessed today and every day.
Read.
Common Threads 
I read Reader Come Home a few years ago when it first came out. It’s an important book, and I imagine the ideas about distractions, etc. are more true now. I tell students reading is a privilege, not a right in many places. I tell them they *get to read. It’s not a *have to read situation. Lately I’ve been thinking about reading as *listening*, something I’ve not seen advanced as an idea.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glenda, I think about that a lot too. I like listening to audiobooks while I drive. A lot of birdwatching involves more listening too, to locate and identify what the eye alone might miss. I think you’re on to something.
And
– I think listening is underrated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know we educators talk about listening to audiobooks as reading, but have you read anything about reading print texts as listening? I’m thinking about this as something different than point of view or multi-voiced texts.
LikeLike
I agree. I cannot imagine life without books. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you, Lakshmi! I cannot either!
LikeLiked by 1 person