The Reading Promise

Well, shoot. I'm so far behind, I think I can see the back of my own head.

I have discovered a few things about myself over the course of this experiment: 1.) I won't read crap books; 2.) I have no problem abandoning books halfway through; 3) This makes it very difficult for me to finish books to review.

Good thing I already read and processed The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared. The book is about a librarian father reading books to his daughter from the time she is in fourth grade until she goes away as a freshman in college. They have to read for 10 minutes each day before midnight. They don't miss a day. They call it "the streak." (If you want a more thorough explanation of the plot, as always you can go straight to Amazon and see what it's all about. I'm hoping - with this blog - to share more of my impressions than a straight-up synopsis).

First of all it was a whizzer. I whizzed right through (not on) the book. It was another of those that you can hardly put down. I read it in, like, a day and a half.

Her father reading books to her is only part of the story. She frames it in vignettes based on "days in a row" read. They touch on her father's extreme poverty as a child, through her grade school, through her mom moving out, through their peculiarities as individuals, through the divorce, through high school, through their Christmases, her proms, her boyfriends, his girlfriends...basically the whole gamut of the life of a single dad bringing up a daughter (well, two daughters, actually).

It's both painful (but only slightly) and wonderful (more than painful). You see two very individual and somewhat private people living the depths of life, all hung on a clothesline of this pact - for him to read to her every night. The vignettes are touching and the story personally enthralling.

So, read it? YES! It's an easy, swift ride with lots of feels and smiles. You'll like it. A Lot.