What’s Reading?

I am all about reading.

It’s my job.

It’s my avocation.

I spend hours and hours every week reading. To children, to myself. Talking about reading. Writing about reading.

So what is it? I say I read 165 books this year. And I did, cover to cover, 165 books. Some left no imprint. In fact, I’m sometimes startled to realize that I read a book within the last year and I remember nothing about it.

If I remember nothing about a book, did I really read it?

I didn’t list most of the picture books I read this year. No Gift of the Magi. No The Little Match Girl. No Night Before Christmas, which I read aloud forty times. Forty times reading that book, talking about that book. But it’s not even on the list.

The books I liked most this year were those I thought most about, wrote most about, talked most about.

Some of the books I liked most this year were not on my list of books I read. Book Crush. Varieties of Disturbance. The Lonely Planet book about all the countries. The story I read to all the classes during Valentine’s Day week. Martin’s Big Words. Books I don’t read cover to cover. Audio books. Anansi books that felt too short to list.

What sparked all this thought about reading? The three minute interview on NPR with the author of How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read. A book I haven’t read.

So how will this change the way I keep track of my reading?

The form I have used the last few years…I want to change it. A list of good questions about the book….I think I will keep a list nearby and use it to talk about my reads, to think about my reads.

I’ll count what I feel like. Even if I read a book from cover to cover, I may not list it. I will list picture books if I want.

I’ll redefine reading. Reading is not just calling words. There is an element of processing, too. Reflecting.