My Reading Life

Wednesday Evenings have become a favorite of mine thanks to Supper Club. Back in September, I hesitated to join this weekly event sponsored by Teachers College Reading and Writing Project because it involved another hour with a screen. Yet, the difference is I am not in change of engaging anyone on the other side of the screen. My camera is off. I’m muted. I just get to listen and be inspired. It’s a gift to me and has been the nudge I need to get over the hump and have the energy to keep going.

This week’s Supper Club guest was author, Kate Di Camilla! I so enjoyed seeing her, hearing her read, listening to her explain her writing process. She of course emphasized the power of reading which supports the ability to write well. She went on to say that every year she rereads books. Then she named Charlotte’s Web. “I did not read this book as child but now as a writer, I read it every year to try to figure out how E. B. White did it.”

This got me thinking about my reading life. I set a personal goal recently. After reading Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi this summer, I realized how much I don’t know as a white woman rasied in the white suburbs in the 60s and 70s. As Maya Angelou says, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” So my personal goal is to read books by authors of color and read stories of characters who are nothing like me. Instead of mirror books, I’m actively reading window books and moving myself to cross the slide door threshold toward empathy and action. (You can read more about Dr. Rudin Sims Bishop research on books as mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors HERE).

Now you’ve read about Kate’s reading life and mine. How’s yours?

Here are the slides I shared with my students as a model for reflecting on the books we are reading:

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PS. Thanks Fran McVeigh – reading your slice yesterday gave me the idea to write my slice today.
Fran also wrote about Supper Club HERE however, she focused what Kate said about revision.