Guest post: Passionate about literacy by Catherine Novak
It’s Blogathon time – here at Raul’s Hummingbird604 blog, you can read 48 different blog posts on a number of passions. Some of them will be Raul’s own, and some will be from guest bloggers. Will they all be different? I hope so… because I plan on spending some Blogathon time practicing one of my favourite passions: reading.
I’m writing this post from my parents’ home in Parksville. In the back yard, nestled among my mom’s perfect shrubbery, is a rather unusual garden ornament. It’s a young girl – well, given that she seems to have a version of dragonfly wings on her back, I guess she’s a young fairy girl. She’s lying down on her front, propped up on her elbows with her bare feet crossed at the ankles. She’s completely absorbed in the task of reading the book in her hands. My mom got this ornament because it reminds her of me.
I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. Apparently, I taught myself to read around the age of four, and could read upside-down as well as right-side up (still can). My mom noticed this talent because I would sit across from her as she read the morning paper, and I would read the headlines out loud and ask her what they meant. Since then, the printed word has been a magnet for me.
It’s all too easy for me to get caught up by a good story – or even the potential of a good story – and let the time fly by. Too bad my tastes aren’t particularly discriminating. In fact, these days I’d rather have a few glitzy magazines on hand. A copy of OK, or Shape, or even Maclean’s is easier to put down than a “quality” novel, which means I can actually get something else done. I made the mistake of picking up a novel a couple of weeks ago, and annoyed my spouse by reading it everywhere, even at the race track, where I was supposed to be cheering on the cars like the rest of the crowd. He’s raised one incredulous eyebrow at me when I’ve indiscriminately gathered three or four free magazines at the grocery store, even when I’m only mildly interested in the content. Hey, it’s a free magazine! I’ll read it!
Reading can also take up a good chunk of my working day if I’m not careful, so it’s a good thing when I can turn my appetite for words into something that pays. I think that my style of concentrated intervals of reading Twitter streams helps satisfy my compulsion to read, and the information I’ve been pointed toward has made me a better social media consultant: I’ve read all the latest trends!
Every passion should find its purpose in serving others, though, and I’m learning to turn this compulsive passion for reading into a force for good. One of the ways I am doing this is by passing along my love of reading to my children. Unlike most boys of our era, they have a great love of reading, and will actually curl up with a book just for entertainment. Or they’ll sit still and listen while I read to them (note: they could read on their own, being 9, 12, and 14, but we like the time together sharing a story).
I hope to spread this passion farther, by supporting literacy causes such as the Victoria READ society. It’s a shame that in one of the most educated countries on earth, a full third of Canadian adults still do not have a functional level of literacy. The printed word is not their friend, even when it comes in the form of a Facebook invitation. I’d like to change that – the written word was created for connecting people and ideas, another great passion of mine.
So expect to see me with a magazine in my purse, a blog on my computer screen and a gleam in my eye. With my money and my time, I want to make the world a more literate place.
Catherine Novak writes at WordSpring, manages the social media strategy of Idea Zone and is a good friend who lives in Victoria and has a way with words that few people I know have.
This is Entry # 34 of 49
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