This is what a library run looks like at our house. Most of that stack isn’t mine — Dog Man, Captain Underpants, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, a couple of Kid Spy books. Buried in the middle are the few that are: Ryan Holiday’s Right Thing, Right Now, a short introduction to Confucianism, and Austin Kleon’s Don’t Call It Art. Though I’ll admit I’ve read my share of Dog Man too.
Books basically raised me. They’re a big part of why I ended up in law school. Reading for hours, sitting with stuff I didn’t understand, following an argument to the end — nobody tells you that’s law school prep, but it is. Most of what I do now is just reading closely and figuring out what a story means. Cases are stories. Contracts are stories. If you grew up on books, you’ve been training for this your whole life.
Which is why the kids’ books in that stack matter more than mine. Kids don’t learn to love reading because you tell them to. They learn it because they see you doing it. And a kid who reads is a kid who asks questions — why did he do that? Is that fair? Sounds a lot like a future law student to me. Funny enough, Captain Underpants raises more legal questions than you’d think.
So take the kids to the library this weekend. Come home with a ridiculous stack. Read together.
What’s your family reading these days?