#23 - Books

I love to read.  I have always loved to read!  As a teacher I absolutely loved juvenile literature - you know the kind perfect for preteens!  It was so much fun to sit with students who had difficulty reading and read to them.  You could watch the world unfold in front of their eyes.  A good book could motivate them to work just a little harder so they could journey to these new places.

I have even always dreamed of being an author.  I'm not sure who would want to read it, but I have always felt that the journey of our life - through 7 miscarriages, infertility, tubal pregnancy, 3 beautiful children and now the journey to Spain - would someday be on paper (or in modern days, in electrons).

One of the steps of mastering a foreign language is to learn to read it.  After a while, books written to teach reading Spanish grow old.  You know, the "See Spot Run" type or the ones who you read not because they are books that have a real story to tell, but because they are written at a specific reading level (and for me that is pretty low).  When I worked with dyslexic children it was always a battle to find high interest, well written books with  low reading level.  Guess what?  The same is the problem when reading in a 2nd language.

I recently completed Juan Salvador Gaviota (Jonathon Livingston Seagull).  It was 112 pages long, sprinkled with pictures, and all in Spanish.  It was a fabulous feeling to reach the last page, really understand the story, and lay that book down.

But then, perhaps I got a little too confident.

I have been wanting to read the biography of Bonhoeffer and I saw it just became available in Spanish.  So I excitedly order the book from Amazon.es and anxiously awaited its arrival.

Do you see how thick that book is?

It arrived yesterday, gulp!  It's not 112 pages.  It doesn't have a ton of pictures.  And yes, as requested, it is in Spanish. I am wondering how many years it might take me to get through this book.  My Spanish tutor had told me to bring it to her and she would help.  I think I might actually have to buy her a copy so we can discuss it after each chapter (or page).  But, hey, the cool thing is - I already learned (just by reading the 31 chapter titles) that Bonhoeffer came to Spain.  Maybe one day I'll lead a book club through this book - if I am not 100 years old when I finish reading it for the first time.

Yep - 542 pages (plus biography, notes,
study guide, ....)

I am thankful for books and I am thankful that God gave me the ability to read.  Not everyone has that blessing.  Many struggle to read a single sentence (which I now have much empathy for).  I am truly blessed.

(Check back in a few weeks and I'll let you know if I have finished chapter 1)