Does your whole family read?

While certainly not true in every case, that seems to be how it goes in most families; either everyone reads, or no one does.

In my family my wife reads even more than I do. She reads a lot faster and has more time. Luckily she is not also a book collector or we'd have less money and room than we already do (or don't). She is perfectly happy to read library books and give them back when she is done. Yup, women are strange. This is not to say she doesn't have any valuable books. She does have signed first editions of some of her favorites. But since they were all Christmas or birthday presents from me...I guess that does defeat the point of mentioning them.

We used to read a lot of the same books, but she doesn't read nearly as much science fiction as she used to and I don't read very much fantasy anymore. And if I do it's most likely a 200 page paperback from the 70s (Michael Moorcock's Elrick series or Charles R. Saunders' Imaro series for example) instead of the flood of 500+ page hardcovers that seem to come out every week. She also reads a lot of mysteries, (I do too but usually not the same ones) and non-fiction (again mostly not the same non-fiction I'm reading).

Since they were very young I have been trying to instill a love of reading, and of science fiction, in my children. I have only been half successful with both of them.

My 13 year-old daughter loves to read. But, even though she enjoyed I, Robot very much (when I read it to her) she has no interest in reading any more Asimov. I thought for sure the Heinlein juveniles would work, but they do nothing for her. While she does enjoy the likes of Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, Eragon, and some other newer teen fantasy series, they comprise a small portion of her reading. The rest of it is all teenage girly stuff, that I suppose is probably more relevant to her life than reading about teenage boys in the 40s who build their own rocket from surplus parts and fly to the moon.

With my 7 year-old son things have gone completely the opposite. While he is reading above his grade level, he says he does not like to read. But he loves science fiction. He loves all six of the Star Wars movies. In fact, he even likes the newer ones better than the originals. I haven't given up on the reading yet though. He is fascinated by the book Splinter of the Mind's Eye, but I won't read it to him, I keep telling him he's going to have to do it himself.

I did have a breakthrough with my wife recently. I kept talking about how great John Scalzi's Old Man's War is and then I got a little devious and had her read this entry from his blog. She immediately warmed to him and picked up OMW, then Ghost Brigades, and now she is reading The Last Colony. She zipped past me and got to it before I did.


Notes on writing. I tried to just write the above without doing any self-editing along the way, now I am going to go back and make some changes which I will detail below.

Changed: She reads a lot faster and she has a lot more time
to: She reads a lot faster and has more time.

Changed: Luckily for us she is not also a book collector or we'd have less money and less room in the house than we already do (or don't).
to: Luckily she is not also a book collector or we'd have less money and room than we already do (or don't).

Changed: She is perfectly happy to get books from the library and give them back when she is done.
to: She is perfectly happy to read library books and give them back when she is done.

Changed: I do too but for the most part not the same ones
to: I do too but usually not the same ones


My problem, which didn't manifest itself very much today and I can't think of any examples of, seems to be strings of short words. Just like with the word "that" I find myself looking for "to" and "of" and the words around them to see if they are necessary or not.

Not that I am all that happy with today's blog. The third paragraph is a mess, but I don't have time today to play with it any more.