- I used to really
strongly dislike reading, like blech, ew, no thank you, dad! 'Cause he's the one who
was making me, never mind. It's kinda funny to hear that
from someone like me, right? I mean, I spent 12 years
in college and grad school so you'd think I'm a total bookworm. Well, I am now but didn't
use to be that way. Before I explain why
I hated books so much, make sure to like this channel, subscribe and click the little bell
icon so you get notifications about all of my videos. Okay, back to talking about
why I used to hate reading. My parents were English
teachers and my brother always had his face in a book so I basically needed to not like reading. My dad would always take us to the library and my brother would
tear through the shelves and come back with stacks of books that he wanted to check out. I remember wandering around
the little kids section for a while and then sulking in a corner. I felt I'd always picked the
wrong thing and regretted, hence the sulking. My dad would invariably
find me in a corner, he would me pick out books
which I would pretty much ignore for most of the
two weeks I had them out. When I was 11, I started
acting professionally and my dad who was a
junior high drama teacher took out a copy of J.D.
Salinger's classic, Catcher In The Rye, for me
to practice my acting skills. He had me start with the first page and all I had to do was read it out loud. It is a gripping first page. I read the words of Holden Caulfield and in an instant I was Holden Caulfield. In a flash, I loved literature because I finally saw how
transformative it could be. Reading isn't just about downloading a bunch of words into your brain, it's about stepping into
the shoes of another person and seeing yourself transformed. You just need to open your mind and let yourself be taken over by a book. Over the course of my teen years, I became an avid reader, I
wanted to read everything, I wanted to get the lists of books that my father gave to his students and I wanted to read those too. And I kept a list of all
the books that I read 'cause there were times when
I simply wanted to look back and remember all of the amazing adventures that I had been on in my
brain through these books. Speaking of going on
adventures in your brain, I really wanna thank
The Great Courses Plus for sponsoring this video. The Great Courses Plus is a subscription video on demand learning service where you can watch lectures and listen to audio
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come from the IV League and places like National Geographic and the Culinary Institute of America. It is an incredible
site where you can gain unlimited access to over 11,000 lectures on pretty much anything that interests you including your favorite authors and books. You can use my link below
to get a free 30 day trial. Okay, let's get back to my reading story. Flash forward 30 years and I'm the mom of a 10 and a 13 year old son who have a ton of reading to do for school and yes, they roll their
eyes when I remind them to do their reading. I'm now that mom reminding
them and kind of nagging them to get their reading
done and also enjoy it! I've noticed that their eye rolls surrounding reading have
gotten more and more frequent. I debated asking their dad if maybe their workload is too much. I mean after all, we're home schoolers, they shouldn't have to do anything or have any responsibility, right? Life's a dream! Uh no, that's not how it works, my ex-husband reminded me,
and he's totally right. So what's my solution? Wait for it, more reading. Let me explain. The one kind of reading that
my sons don't do any of anymore is reading simply for pleasure. We used to read three storybooks a night and it was so much fun, it was glorious, they saw reading as cuddling with mama and learning amazing things
and going on great adventures. Those days are gone. I mean they're pretty
much grown up now, right? Now their before bed
routine is that they wrestle and we talk and we laugh
and they brush their teeth and take a shower and then
they just want a quick kiss and a cuddle and they
put themselves to bed. There's no more time for us
reading together for pleasure. However, I think that reading should be what my father inspired me to see that reading could be. It's a window into your mind as you explore someone else's
life experience, it's amazing. I mean the brain is so amazing like we read other people's stories and we have feelings about
them and we cry with them, we fall in love, like that's incredible. The power of books is unbelievable. And so, to drive that home, I have decided that my sons and I are going to read again
together for pleasure. I ordered four books from
which they can choose, we read a couple chapters every weekend and low and behold, they love reading. The first family book that we're reading is Animal Farm by George Orwell. We grab blankets and each
other and we sit together and I read to them. It's the story of animals liberated which my vegan children
and I cannot get enough of. But it's also the story
of fascism and socialism and a struggle for power and
what are the things we do to get power and how do we keep it? It's wonderful! I mean, sleep well, boys. Now you know about fascism. But seriously, they're enjoying reading the way they should, the way
I started to when I was 11. So how is our experience going for me? Well, I think I kinda get a gold star because my kids have
stopped rolling their eyes when I say, it's time to read. Why? Because A, it's togetherness time, and B, they're seeing my enthusiasm as we go on these journeys together through the books that we read. Our next book choices
are Diary of Anne Frank, the Autobiography of Helen Keller, and To Kill a Mockingbird. I'll let you know how it goes. And don't forget to check
out The Great Courses Plus. There's actually a course on George Orwell so you can learn all
about dystopian novelists and the fact that George Orwell
really could only project a couple of decades into the future even though his books are
so visionary and amazing. So please visit
TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/Mayim or click the link below in the description to start your free 30 day trial. And let me know how it
goes, happy reading! For more on which books
inspire me and why, check out my website at groknation.com.
