Reading Time (was: M&D thoughts -- no spoiler)

[Peter Giordano]

Somebody (was it Joe?) said:
>> And then there are kids...those friends of mine who have kids don't read
>> *at all* anymore.  I just can't fathom doing that.

I say:
Whatever happened to reading to kids?  My kids have always been read
to and (without boasting about the kinds of books they read) I know that
they will be life long readers - We have a family tradition of reading at the
dinner table after a meal (Narnia, Dickens,Tolkien,  juvenile potboilers, 
the newspaper [Deep
Blue got a lot of coverage in our house]) - We're currently reading a not so
good book THE VOYAGE OF THE BASSET - - We pass the book around the
table and everybody reads a few pages - BASSET, by the way has lovely pictures
but is not such a good book - We are having a contest now to see who can give
the most melodramatic reading to the dull prose

This morning, on the way to school my ten year old daughter asked me
about M&D (she's fond of fat books) - She's seen me laughing over 
passages or showing passages to my wife - Which brings up another thing -
Kids read when they see their parents reading (Although I don't think
I'm going to recommend M&D [or any Pynchon] to her)

(P.S.  We are not snobs though - We watch the Simpsons with more
regularity than we go to church and the Marx Bros. and Bob and Bing
are practically members of the family)

Peter Giordano
Williams College
Williamstown, MA