Once Upon A Time, Reading Books for Pleasure Was a Habit of the Rich and Wealthy
I told my library students that one can lift oneself upwardly mobile by adopting a habit once reserved only for the rich and wealthy; that being leisure time spent simply reading for pleasure. So spend your leisure time reading lots of great books for sheer pleasure. Adopt the habit reserved once upon a time only for those who were rich and wealthy. Reading pleasurably in leisure is culturally refined. It is an action of immediate upward mobility. I grew up in my grandmother’s shotgun house in the Old Colored segregated neighborhood called “Greenline” in Greenville, South Carolina. I think we were poor. But, I never felt poor. I spent all my days leisurely reading lots of books for simple pleasure. My grandmother never interrupted my reading. She allowed me to read as long and as much as I wanted. “Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.” ~Beverly Cleary
