Truly, we are a society on the go. In our world of cars, fast food, and hurried schedules, our lives our becoming more and more portable. One of the great things about books is that you can take them almost anywhere. With Raytown’s recent renovation, we have created some reading areas near our large windows to take advantage of our afternoon sunlight. Many mornings, we will see patrons reading  their morning paper in comfort or relaxing with paperback.

In the past, I had always operated under the principle of finishing a book, even if it was horrible, simply because I had already started it. It seems like such an absurd concept now, but I’m sure it made some kind of moral sense to me at the time. Maybe, I felt some sort of responsibility, similar to that felt during my school days. An assignment was given and must be completed. I had assigned myself to read this dreadfully long and unengaging paperweight of a novel, and I was therefore committed to finishing it.

If you read the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson and thought, "Boy howdy... now what do I read?", then we can help you go all Swedish, all the time.

Perhaps like me, you've been captivated by impressive toddlers on TV, supposedly reading, using video methods. I say "supposedly" because, most child educators remind us that the amazing skill of reading is actually a group of skills. These "wonder kids" have actually only memorized certain words, and learned to skim over them without full comprehension, instead of learning to decode words and spell. They have started with a technique that will be difficult to correct later. Most often, these vendors only create misinformed parents and misguided children, and that irks me!