Successful Reads

ooks to Help You Navigate Life and Business

By Leisa Watkins
Image Courtesy of simonkoležnik

Image Courtesy of simonkoležnik

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”

~Mark Twain, attributed

I was at a local book fair where I watched a young child eagerly run up to our booth to look at the vast array of children’s books.  He spent fifteen wide-eyed minutes in the booth devouring every picture in the book he could find.

All the while, his mom grew more and more impatient.  She tried pulling him away several times.  Finally she grabbed his arm and successfully pulled him away.

As they were walking away the child was pleading for a book.  “Please mom, just one book,” he said.

What she said next astounded me, “But you already have “a” book.  You don’t need more than one.”

My heart broke for that child.

  • Doesn’t that mom want to provide a good education for a child?
  • Doesn’t she want to feed his imagination?
  • Doesn’t she want to provide the advantages that the knowledge contained within books could bring?

What advantage to you want for yourself?

Have you read from a good book today?

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”

~Mark Twain, attributed

I was at a local book fair where I watched a young child eagerly run up to our booth to look at the vast array of children’s books.  He spent fifteen wide-eyed minutes in the booth devouring every picture in the book he could find.

All the while, his mom grew more and more impatient.  She tried pulling him away several times.  Finally she grabbed his arm and successfully pulled him away.

As they were walking away the child was pleading for a book.  “Please mom, just one book,” he said.

What she said next astounded me, “But you already have “a” book.  You don’t need more than one.”

My heart broke for that child.

  • Doesn’t that mom want to provide a good education for a child?
  • Doesn’t she want to feed his imagination?
  • Doesn’t she want to provide the advantages that the knowledge contained within books could bring?

What advantage to you want for yourself?

Have you read from a good book today?

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”

~Mark Twain, attributed

I was at a local book fair where I watched a young child eagerly run up to our booth to look at the vast array of children’s books.  He spent fifteen wide-eyed minutes in the booth devouring every picture in the book he could find.

All the while, his mom grew more and more impatient.  She tried pulling him away several times.  Finally she grabbed his arm and successfully pulled him away.

As they were walking away the child was pleading for a book.  “Please mom, just one book,” he said.

What she said next astounded me, “But you already have “a” book.  You don’t need more than one.”

My heart broke for that child.

  • Doesn’t that mom want to provide a good education for a child?
  • Doesn’t she want to feed his imagination?
  • Doesn’t she want to provide the advantages that the knowledge contained within books could bring?

What advantage to you want for yourself?

Have you read from a good book today?

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  • Books fanNo Gravatar March 24, 2009 at 6:30 pm

    Hello. Great job. This is a great story. Thanks!

  • RyNo Gravatar March 25, 2009 at 2:49 am

    I work in a bookstore and sadly this phenomenon is far more common than anyone realizes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve overheard parents telling their kids that they shouldn’t be “wasting their time on books” and instead they should spend what money they have on “useful things like cds and movies”.

    More than that, though, is the general lack of interest in books by the current young generations. It seems young people, even college students my age, just don’t want to read. A perfect example is the girl I had come in with a 25 dollar gift card. What did she buy? Not books, not movies, not even music. She came into our bookstore–she was around 16–with her parents and proceeded to purchase $25 worth of LIP GLOSS. Lip gloss.. Her mom didn’t even think twice. We have a major problem that NO one seems to be addressing, no one seems to care about the fact people just don’t want to read at all anymore. The internet, music, movies, and video games have taken over, but what kind of children are we raising? Is there such a thing as imagination anymore?

    Your blog is great, lots of amazing content!

  • Leisa WatkinsNo Gravatar March 25, 2009 at 12:09 pm

    Books Fan,

    Thanks so much!

  • Leisa WatkinsNo Gravatar March 25, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    Wow! “Wasting their time on books” and trading it for “useful things like cds and movies”. That is amazing.

    I’m reading an interesting book right now (review coming soon) that talks about how our body craves adrenalin and that we need more and more stimuli to reach that same adrenalin rush. It talks about how those video games, music, advertising, and more pump that adrenalin into our system at a much faster rate now.

    Sadly, besides a shift in priorities, perhaps the amount of stimuli we get every day focusing on a book is much more difficult.

    Thanks for contributing to the content here. I appreciate you!

  • Karen, author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"No Gravatar April 23, 2009 at 11:38 pm

    How sad for that child. Maybe the mother just didn’t have any extra money with her but “a” book is not enough. I would think parents would encourage their children to read. It takes all kinds, I guess. I read on the bus to and from work. Just discover Brandilyn Collins and really enjoyed her Kanner Lake Series.

  • Leisa WatkinsNo Gravatar May 2, 2009 at 2:22 pm

    Karen,

    It is sad isn’t it.

    If she didn’t have any money she would be better off just saying so, rather than letting the child believe that books were not important enough to have more than one.

    I actually tried to find them a few minutes later and give him the book because of the expression on his face when he looked at it. I wasn’t able to find though.

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Leisa Watkins

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