Bill Maher made a sublime point the other night: kids will probably do better in life if there are books in the house when they grow up. Certainly they'll be able to live more on their own terms from a younger age. But it's never too late. There are no more eloquent testimonies to the power of books, ideas, and literacy than the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X. At least that I know of.
I thank my parents -- if never enough -- for making freely available a large and eclectic book collection, and for reading advanced material to me when I was very young. Instead of sugar-coated Disney versions, I heard Brothers Grimm fairytales, Greek myths, and world legends told straight up. I remember also Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1958) when I was very very young. When I became a little older, no reading material was ever pushed on me by my parents, but little was off-limits, either. Perfect atmosphere for curiosity and exploration. (This is also how I learned about music).
Off the top of my head -- and before my father greatly expanded his American Civil War collection (more on that in the future), my parents read widely (as did my sisters, both older, and later my younger bother): history, biography, art, architecture, religion, philosophy, mysteries, Westerns, science fiction, fantasy, classic novels . . . they still do.
I remember specifically the Will Durant series, Matthew Brady's Photographic History of the Civil War, a two-volume photographic history of the Second World War, various Bibles and commentaries, Asian religious and philosophical texts, Sun Tzu's Art of War, JFK's Profiles in Courage, novels by Pearl S. Buck, works of Voltaire originally acquired by my father's father, a great book by Clarence Darrow (I forget its title), novels by Hemingway and Jane Austen, and a terrific and exciting book I loved called Thinking Big. Finally, with the mysterious title Borstal Boy drawing me to it, there was the writing of Brendan Behan. When I look back, all of these books have stuck with me to varying degrees.
How about you? What was your experience growing up with books, or did you come to them later, like Malcolm X? Do you think kids today read enough, or have they become completely infantalized with games, crappy movies and etcetera?
Today's Rune: Strength.
4 comments:
Yes I think the visual pop and sizzle of modern technology has taken over the sublime silence found in reading, fewer and fewer young ones do it for pleasure these days.
Growing up with my parents was having twenty different avenues for reading material stacked in various places in the house. Comic books, newspapers, encyclopedias, novels and literature. My grandmother was no better with her collections of Frost, Dickens, Hugo, Sandburg, Dickinson, Yeats and Guest.
I agree--a good home needs books (kids or not, even.) Growing up there were all kinds of books lying around. My interest in my father's old, manual, Royal typewriter combined with my sister's book on touch typing had me typing by age 5. We also had a full set of encyclopedias & were always encouraged to use them. I even still have a couple of my father's old, cherished books of classic poetry.
My close friends & I agree; the books (or lack thereof,) in someone's home says something about who they are.
My experience was much different. We had the Bible and some farming and hunting magazines in my house, the latter brought in by my brother. At some point in time we did get a small set of encyclopedias and that I devoured. I actually hid to read quite a lot, and definitely tried to avoid letting my mom know some of the stuff I was reading. She generally didn't ask one way or the other what I was reading, but she found a book once I'd borrowed from my much older sister's house and I got in quite a bit of trouble about that. It had some sex in it. I was about 14 or 15 at the time.
Erik, other than the newspaper and encyclopedias, I don't remember a lot of books around the house. We did, however have a library 2 blocks away and we all had our cards! Most holidays included a book for me and I pilfred books from my babysitting jobs!
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