Downsides of Being a Reader

I wanted my child to be a reader, so now I have to observe her dragging every book she’s currently reading and consulting with her everywhere. Her backpack weighs more than she does, and I’m worried she’ll have back problems but I can’t get her to relinquish a single book or encyclopedia she needs to have with her at every moment in time.

4 thoughts on “Downsides of Being a Reader

  1. We solved this problem with the Kindle Paperwhite.

    Can’t get it to stop advertising the dumbest imaginable kids books on the home screen, but I can fit the thing in my purse so the kids can haul forty books around with us all the time…

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  2. A black and white e-reader in a pleasant leatherette case that has the hand-feel of a book is a useful addition to a child’s kit.

    Reasily and Overdrive give access to Project Gutenberg and public library books. If it has modest internet access, one can read online databases

    Why should a modern child on this golden (and probably ephemeral age) of literary access go without the complete Oxford English Dictionary and the complete works of GK Chesterton it the short stories of Joan Aiken?

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  3. I was the child who dragged all the books everywhere. My parents made sure I had a backpack that was balanced between shoulders so I wouldn’t tip sideways while carting around Lord of the Rings and whatnot. They tried to limit the number of books I took to and from school every day—that limit was three, one of which was allowed to be a heavy one. I still managed to sneak more than one out, but the limit helped the weight of my backpack, at least.

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