Are you a reader?

I grew up in a family of readers. My sister always had a book at hand. I remember when she read "Gone With The Wind". It seemed like a huge book to me.  She loved the library. My dad was a voracious Bible reader. Every night. He read many other books, but I don't recall ever seeing him with a fiction book. Church books. Challenging dad's biblical knowledge, not a good idea. It won't end well for you. He's not a showoff or braggart about it, just learned. And newspapers. We had newspapers. The local rag, the Longview Standard Journal and the Dallas Morning News. There was always a paper in the driveway.

Me, I like to read. Not school books. But I did prefer non-fiction. Biographies or auto-biographies. History. Self-help. Educational books, meaning professional books for work. I didn't really read fiction until around 1998-1999. At that point in time, due to some personal issues, I actually stopped reading altogether. But I always loved reading. I started reading newspapers when I was young. But at that point in time, I ijust stopped reading. I stopped reading everything. The book that got me back on track was a book by Elizabeth Berg. Open House. It spoke to me on a personal level. And it was fiction.

Today, we had a garage sale. And of course, we had a number of books for sale. Just .10¢ each. An older lady stopped in, scooped up 20 of them. Yes, this must be someone's grandma. Or a lot of "someone's" grandma. And maybe so, But she bought them for the SMART program. SMART stands for "Start Making A Reader Today". She is a volunteer who reads to kids. And in turn, the time will come when they start reading to her. Lots of different kids are in this program. Slow readers. Readers without confidence. Whatever the case, she had a goal for these books. She would read these books to SMART participants, and they would, in turn, learn to read them back to her. And on that special day, she would reward them with that specific book.

We didn't get her name, but she made an impression. As she left, she said one thing.

"You can't take the knowledge out of a book!"

And as a reader, I find that to be so true. I want you to find that to be true, too. Are you a reader? Keep it up. Maybe volunteer at your local library or school to read to kids. Not a reader? Start. I like real books, the ones made of paper. But you can read electronically. It expands the mind and increases the imagination.

People come in and out of our lives for a reason. This lady dropped by to give us $2.00 and a valuable lesson. Always remember...

"You can't take the knowledge out of a book!"