Do it for love, but the bonus is, it’s good for youFebruary is the time we concentrate on love. It’s a good thing, then, because I’m writing about my love affair … with books.This is "I Love to Read Month," designed to get children into the good habit of reading. It’s a good habit because reading is the learning mechanism most of us have to use well into adulthood — whether it’s training for changes on the job or navigating our way through an instruction manual.Typically, reading is seen as educational, but it’s also entertainment. Truly loving to read comes from more than picking up facts.Reading introduced me to new, exciting worlds that my imagination couldn’t create. I was scared by Stephen King, who taught me of evils I didn’t know existed … even though they probably don’t as he writes them. I was enlightened by Harper Lee, whose "To Kill a Mockingbird" showed me that racial prejudices can taint even the clearest facts. That is something that I — a 13-year-old white girl from the middle of North Dakota — wouldn’t have learned outside a book.I learned about strength and self-confidence in Maya Angelo’s "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."The list of entertainment and education I’ve gained from books could go on and on.However, I also read professional trade publications, women’s magazines, cookbooks and the back sides of cereal boxes. I simply enjoy reading. I think I get a little something useful from everything I read — even if it’s simply that I’m getting my share of riboflavin.Statistically, people who read a lot are able to concentrate better on other tasks. They are able to relate individual facts to a whole concept. They are generally more intelligent.I may be writing this to the wrong audience. If you are reading this newspaper, you already know that reading is a good habit. You know that you get more from reading about a news topic than you’d pick up from chit-chat.This probably isn’t the only reading you do.Maybe during this month, we can share the love of words and information by publicizing "I Love to Read Month."And we can have our hearts broken — and then made better — by reading Charlotte Bronte’s "Jane Eyre."
