I do not believe this to be true.
When my parents moved to Scandia there were two established families down the country dirt road from us. One family, older than my parents, had a set of boys younger than my brother and I. The couple across the road, my parent’s age, had a girl and a boy they were younger than us too.
When I say country dirt road, I mean it. Dusty dirt and tractor ruts in the summer and invisible in the winter. Sometimes in the summer the dirt on the road was like the beach sand, you sink into it and it’s impossible to bike on. In the winter with the help of snow and sleet rain, our bikes hibernated in the sheds, while we dusted skates off and skated on the roads.
I digress…
Between the 3 families, we had 100+ acres, only 60 were collectively ours BUT when farms boarder your yard it gives you extra space to explore. Sometimes, kids just need that extra space.
Being the oldest, I used to babysit all of neighbor kids. The only other girl, was a reader. Every time I went over there to play baseball by the barn, build forts in forest or babysit on date night, she was always reading. Their household like ours only had one TV and we never thought to turn it on.
Much like Belle, her nose was ALWAYS in a book. She didn’t have a favorite genre just wanted to read, anything and EVERYTHING.
I’ve always enjoyed reading, but she was another level. I like to have a book with me in case I find a couple minutes to gobble up some pages but she would make plans to read.
Unlike the Offsprings song, The Kids Aren’t Alright, our old neighborhood isn’t cracked and torn, it’s very much together but everyone grew up and moved on. While we lost touch, I still think about the bookworm and I wonder if she still reads.
Nowadays I’m part of a couple book clubs. None of the “clubs” read the same book at the same time and answer questions about it, but more often than not someone has read or is reading a book someone else is reading. Quite often the readers have the same opinions but every once-in-a-while a conversation emerges and it’s interesting to hear all sides of the book: the themes that were stronger for some than others, the characters that were their favorite or the parts of the book that resonated with them.
I think that the quote above could be true, if you stuck with one genre. If all you ever read was Colleen Hoover or Christina Lauren you would have a lot of the same opinions. But what IF you tried out all genres and tested your reading comfort zone? I think it would broaden your conversation scope. New genres mean different ways at looking at things, different writing styles help with that too.
If you’re not a reader, I would challenge that you just haven’t found your genre/authors yet.
Kids need space to explore but your mind needs space to grow. Give it that space with a different type book. Read something you’re not used to. I want to hear, what are you reading? I’m about to embark on the Fourth Wing series 😊
Happy reading!
Namaste,
Jes xoxo
