Guess What?

As recently as 5,000 years ago reading wasn’t even a leisure option because, as far as we know, no symbolic writing system existed before then. With the invention of the movable type 500 years ago books proliferated and reading became so important and so widespread that we have practically sewn it into our moral code. You would leave your kids with someone who smoked before you left them with someone who admitted they didn’t like to read. And it is not just your local librarian that will look at you askance if you confess that you don’t read much. Even Jerry Seinfeld said that “a bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.” Coolio, that “educated fool,” said that he always walked to school with his nose buried in a book. Joseph Brodsky took it a step further: 'There are worse crimes than burning books,” he said. “One of them is not reading them.' So Koran-burning may be bad, but people who skip the book and watch the movie or the sparknotes video...they are the real criminals. Whether you like it or not, literacy is the key that will open most of the doors you’d like to walk through in life.

So, my one-year-old daughter Miette would like to share with you a little tip to make reading more fun. It has to do with anticipation. First I should explain that Miette has not been the most responsive baby in the world. Sadly, she doesn’t seem to appreciate my charisma and charm. My attempts to entertain her with jazzy song-and-dance routines or captivating facial contortions are usually met with a vacant stare, an open mouth, and a quick dash toward mommy. Sure, I may not be the world’s greatest showman, but I have noticed something as I have experimented with Miette. Tickling her in the standard way will usually get you nowhere also. But if you are truly desperate to look at her ghoulish smile or to hear her squeal with delight you have to try something else. Hold your hand up about four feet away from her and slowly, steadily bring it toward her. She will fixate on it, anticipating what is about to happen, and when her expectations are finally fulfilled with your fingers poking her all over in the same way as before, the snaggle teeth will make a gleeful appearance and the most delightful giggle will burst from her trachea.

Perhaps some types of reading invoke a response in you like tickling does in Miette, rendering you mildly nauseous or making you want your mommy. For those dull reading situations, may I suggest a similar tactic. Start anticipating. Make predictions about characters, plot, setting, or even things like vocabulary, the author’s hubris, or who is going to die next. Make bets with yourself. If this guy makes one more misogynistic character reference I will make dinner for my wife tonight. If, by the end of this article, all evangelicals are still lumped in with James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Jim DeMint I will eat another cookie. If I ever read anything by David Sedaris that is not intellectually self-effacing and literarily brilliant I will buy myself a Porsche. You don’t have to do it quite like this, but if you don’t start a dialog within yourself about what is going on in the stuff you have to read you will never get anything out of it. If you do start an inner dialog that fosters anticipation, engagement, and awareness of what might be coming up next, you might find that even the most mundane tickling becomes a source of joy.