Get Busy with Books
Summer is the perfect time to sit yourself down and simply read. It can be hard to juggle all those textbooks during the school year, but summer offers an opportunity to read whatever it is that your heart desires.I was reading our book of the month, Think, by Lisa Bloom yesterday and I learned some poignant facts:
1. In fifth grade, American students are at the same level with their foreign counterparts when it comes to reading, but by the time they reach high school, they’ve become a snail in the rat race of reading levels. Instead, they spend as much as 50 hours a week in front of computer screens, TVs, and video games.2. Nearly 1/3 of American teenagers drop out of high school. This is largely due to a lagging literacy level and this is highly correlated with a lack of employment, lower wages, and fewer opportunities for advancement. They are also less likely to vote or volunteer.3. Efficient readers have an enlivened social and civic sense of duty. Not only do they attend more concerts and theaters, they also exercise more and play more sports.Do you see why we need to pick up more books? I picked up a few myself yesterday and here are the books I can’t wait to set my eyes on:
1. A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard. We’ve seen this story in the media for such a prolonged period of time—I want to hear it straight from the source.2. The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I read portions of this book in high school but I’m excited to read the piece in its entirety. I think it’s essential that we know how we need to feel loved, but more importantly, how others need to feel loved.3. Knowing Your Value by Mika Brzezinski: I love learning about how women in the workplace have not only found success—they have made their own. Not to mention, because Mika is in the news business, I feel like it is especially pertinent to my summer internship.What books will you pick up this summer? Happy reading!Keep shining,The Sunny Girl, Lauren Cook