Simple Ways to Share Your Love of Reading

You read a lot. Your interest may range from novels to nonfiction, autobiographies, tech articles, political news pieces, science discoveries research papers, poetry. How can you rub this love for your written word with others? There sure has been a time when you got so involved with a character in your book, that you wanted your friends to feel it too. You found that poetry piece by Robert Frost so moving that you wanted to share it with others.

We get it, you are an avid reader, or maybe you are someone who loves reading. Yet there are many who are unable to enjoy this pleasure, forget about reaping the several health benefits of reading. Take a look, here's how you can share your joy and love of reading with others. Coming in the month of September is, the Adult Education and Family Literacy week, how about starting now! Share your gift and the joy of reading rather than spending money on gifts like cards and flowers. Here are some simple ways you can share your love and help people share it further:

• Start your own campaign of giving away a certain number of books over the next six months or the current year. Keep a record, and you will feel happier every time you give away a book. At the end of the year, you would have touched many lives.
• Contact your community’s school district and offer them your time and effort for volunteering with kids struggling to read. Become a reading mentor in your neighborhood or county school. Your enthusiasm, compassion, and patience will be much appreciated.
• Donate your read books to your local library or old age homes or charity shops. You may leave a nice message inside the book and pass on the bliss of reading.
• Write to your favorite author on his social media page. Appreciate his hard work and dedication towards writing. Tell him or her what you liked in their writings. With social media being so popular and having such a wide reach, this can be read by many and Donate your read books to your local library or old age homes or charity shops. You may leave a nice message inside the book and pass on the bliss of reading.
• Make a pledge that on occasions like birthday, Christmas, Easter, anniversaries, you will only give books as gifts. If you are not sure what book your friend or family member will like, gift them a voucher or gift card to buy a book or reading material of their choice.
• Take your kid(s) to the library. If possible, make it a point to visit the library at least once a month. This can become your family ritual which may be carried forward to next generations.
• If you have a toddler at home, make sure you spend time with him or her every day looking at books, seeing pictures and talking ‘words’. Make your own stories from the pictures in the book, talk about characters, intonate their script and keep books everywhere in your home, living room, in baskets, in toy boxes, kitchen shelf.
• Be a role model. Your children should see you reading and enjoying reading. Keep books, newspapers, and magazines around your house and kids will pick up this activity. They will understand and realize first-hand that reading is fun, important and useful. Cut off on their screen time, instead read a book together.
• Become an adult literacy tutor.  Help someone read and write. You can attend a volunteer orientation and tutor training at Vision Literacy to start as a tutor. It is a very rewarding experience.
• At work, start a monthly book club or seminar with your coworkers.
• Volunteer at a non-profit serving the cause of (adult) illiteracy. Help them raise awareness about illiteracy or cultivate a love for reading in the community.
• The next time you finish an interesting book on the go, you may want to leave it behind for some other book lover to enjoy it too or a non-reader to pick it up and read at least a few words. Share the love of reading with a stranger.
• Donate books at school libraries. These can be alphabet books, board books for preschoolers or kindergarten students, fiction and nonfiction books for higher grade students.
• Enjoy your own privilege by reading regularly. Prefer to read when you wish to relax. It has a surprising health benefit too. Celebrate your literacy.
• At ESL classes, take out time to listen to experiences of people who are less privileged as far as literacy level is concerned. Empathize, do not sympathize.
• Make a monetary donation to a non-profit supporting the cause of literacy.

---