How - To: Brew A Reading Habit

As a ten year old girl with a mild obsession with sugary breakfast cereal, my mother opted to let me try a new flavor or brand every few weeks in hopes that I would “get it out of my system." To this day (and to my amusement), I can still recall fads from the past like Blueberry Morning, Rice Krispy Treat Cereal, Cracklin’ Oat Bran, and Count Chocula. And while my mornings for the good part of year each tasted different, there was one thing that remained the same: Peet’s Coffee.

Don’t cry out, it’s not like I took in the bitter brew at the young age when my bones were tender to the possible ramifications of caffeine (stunted development, etc.) The only thing I knew of coffee was the warm yet sharp scent of my fresh beans being ground every morning and the monotone whir of the ancient grinder splicing each bean into a fine ground espresso.

After years of smelling coffee in the morning, it became part of my life. Now, I am as notorious with my morning cup of coffee as I was as that little girl eating sweet cereal every morning. And while I cannot imagine life without coffee (well, I can, but I’d rather not), I’ve also realized the type of impact that a consistent, omnipresent environment can have on the shaping of one’s values and priorities.

As adamant as my mother was about letting me get my interest in sugar cereals out of my system (it pseudo-worked), she was even more invested in making sure that my brother and I were life-long readers. To the extent that she read to us every single night until we could read ourselves, lugged us back and forth to the local library and bookstore, modeled reading the newspaper every day, and filled each bookshelf in the house with National Geographic, novels, and short stories that were of our interests - boggles my mind.

But it worked. Today, my brother and I are obsessed with reading, and even our private SAT tutor brought us numerous books. We read books until the spines split and peel, we scour the news every morning and generally would not be happy without always having a book ready to read on the night stand.

While making reading a part of your family life may seem like a lot of work, think of it as a coffee habit, or the formation of any other habit. Remember to make the topic appealing, easily accessible, and inescapable. How else do you think I became a die-hard fan for some of the most pungent coffee in all the land? It’s in my blood. And, like reading, because it was made part of my life for as long as I can recall - it’s there. For life.