There are many journeys we can take during our lifetime. Journeys close to home, and journeys in faraway lands. Journeys within our comfort zone, and journeys that will change us forever. Journeys on our own, and journeys in the company of friends or family. Journeys we enjoy, and journeys we’d rather forget. Fast-paced journeys, and journeys that drag on and on…
What’s the best way to take so many journeys? By reading books. Anna Quindlen said it so well in How Reading Changed My Life: “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”
Below is a photo of one of the several bookcases in our home. It contains our personal children’s books, as well as many more from the library, which I exchange for new ones every week. I take my kids on several journeys every night and they often complain the moment is over much too soon. As for me, traveling the many roads and sharing this experience with them always is the best part of the journey.
Wordpress weekly photo challenge: Journey
Perfecting Motherhood 
Now that my sons are older, they do more activities with their father than me. I worry that given the way memory functions, they won’t remember all of the things I did with them when they were little. And most of them, they don’t. But both admit to remembering our daily after-preschool and after-early elementary school reading time, cuddled up on the couch, working our way through a pile of library books. And now both are avid readers. I like to think I had something to do with that. :)
My sons get to spend a lot more time with me than their dad so I hope they remember some of it when they grow up! Thanks for letting me know that reading time together as a family has made your kids avid readers. I really hope that’s how my kids will turn out too. They hate it when we don’t have time to read a lot of books at night.
Love your ‘booked’ up shelves (much nicer than ones decorated with plants and nicknacks). I love journeying to new worlds in the books I read (and am glad my kids love it too).
Oh, I’d never use bookshelves for anything but books (except the kids’ bookshelf, which also holds puzzles and games). I barely have enough room on the shelves for the books we have and I often have to give some away. I’m running out of walls to get new bookcases!
I enjoy reading, I don’t keep too many books around though. I will read them and pass them on to a friend or donate them, only the ‘best of the best’ get to stick around my home, mainly because I have a small home and books do take up space. I have thought about a Ebook reader but its just not the same to me as paper!
Compared to the amount of books my kids and I read, we don’t own many of them (we’d be bankrupt!). At any time I have 100 to 150 books borrowed from the library, so I need the shelf space for them. I only keep the books I really, really enjoy and give away the rest. When the kids outgrow their books I give them to friends with littler ones.
As for an Ebook reader, I’m soooo not ready to take the plunge. I stare at a computer screen most of the day so the last thing I want is stare at another screen while I lay in bed reading before going to sleep!
Making time for reading is something I am finding it more and more difficult to do these days. But I do love a good story, as a writer would.
Tim
I’m lucky enough to have enjoyed most of the books I’ve read these past couple of years and some of them are on my favorites list now. As for finding the time, besides giving up on sleep, which I do too often, I dedicate time to read before going to sleep every night. I don’t have cable TV so it gives me more free time than most people. But I still have to force myself to turn off the computer and go upstairs early enough to have my reading time.
I love this peak at one of your bookcases.
Another one of our commonalities: our love for reading – both grown-up books and books with our kids. And there’s nothing greater than the library, huh? I love being able to indulge my sons’ latest interests without breaking the bank.
There’s no way we’d be able to read that many books if we didn’t have our library. What surprises me the most is how many people still don’t read books when they are available for free. They say they don’t have time to read, and that’s simply because they can’t turn off the “idiot box” to make for time. I also love the ability to order tons of library books right on my computer, based on subjects, authors, or recommendations. I’ve taken my kids to the bookstore and read there but it’s a little awkward and I always feel pressured to buy a book after reading so many others for free.
I have traveled far and wide
All while sitting fireside
Logs fuel the house . . . words fuel my imagination. Great take on the theme!
Thank you! I thought of several photos I could use but concluded this one would represent the best journey of all.