A.R. Geiger

I credit my mom for making me love books as much as I do.

I also credit her with being the first one to clock that I should be a writer and telling me so long before I was ready to hear it, but that’s a whole different story.

When I was little, she would take us to the library and bring home enormous laundry baskets full of books. She also bought books at the thrift store for us (like I do!) and would spend ridiculous amounts of time reading out loud to us. Especially in the morning. We used to show up in her room before she was even out of bed with stacks of books, and we’d all snuggle together and read for a while before we got up and started the day.

As much as I love the idea, that doesn’t happen much with me and my son. I wake up early for work, and that boy could sleep till noon if we let him.

When he’s not waking up at 5 AM and scaring the living daylights out of me while I’m trying to get out the door for the gym.

Ah, memories.

But, despite mornings not being our best time, I still want very much to pass my love of reading on to my son. I want him to enjoy getting lost in books and to have the same storage problems that I have.

Being a book lover is not for the faint of heart. But I’m sure he’ll be fine.

Right now, the best time for me to pass on the passion is right before bed. We get ourselves all ready, brush our teeth, get into our pjs, and then – while daddy goes to get the dog and put her away for the night – we set our stopwatch and we read together.

Right now, Nate the Great is the top favorite. Also Mercy Watson, Leroy Ninker, Mr. Putter and Tabby, and anything written by Bill Peet or Dr. Suess.

Most of these we pull from the library. Although we do a lot of searching for them at the thrift stores too.

Currently our goal is half an hour every night. Sometimes that looks more like fifteen to twenty minutes, especially if Adam is jumpy and wants to do summersaults on the bed instead of listening to me read. Other times, it looks more like forty five minutes, especially if we happen to have had a very good haul at the library that day and there are just too many good books to choose from.

I figure it evens out in the end.

Hopefully, our nightly reading sessions will result in the same kind of love for books that my mom taught to me. I’m always hopeful that I can pass that passion on to my kids, the way she did for me.