Posted on 03/07/2023 5:04:19 PM PST by grundle
We probably had 500 books on our shelves.
Four kids. One is an expert on children’s literature. Another is a book editor. Another is an engineer.
The trucker doesn’t read much but he does have a Tom Clancy book hollowed out to hold a pistol.
The editor lives in an upstairs apartment. She has so many books no one will help her move.
We did not have lots of books...BUT my mother took us to the Library where there WERE lots of books that we could check out. I read to my younger siblings...do not recal my parents reading to us. I am known as the bookworm of the family...and now have my own “library.” (Kindle doesn’t cut it.)
Are some people intelligent because they read, or do they read because they are intelligent?
My recommendations are from my male perspective on books for boys under 12: anything by Jack London, Mark Twain, Jules Verne. Also books telling Bible stories, some C. S. Lewis, Tolkien’s The Hobbit.
I suspect parents with over 500 books have a higher IQ than those who don’t.
Ben Carson is a perfect example of this.
My parents never read to us, but we had an encyclopedia set and got several magazines every month.
I read them.
Yes the 2 biggest predictors of school success are the presence of books in the home and the presence of a single desk in the home. Just one desk. I didn’t realize that 500 books was the magic # and that might change with Kindle etc.
I definitely have 500+ books in my home and all my kids were successful in school. Very much so.
Now I should get off FR and go read a book!
You have to be smart enough to learn to read but that is a good 95% of the human race. And the more you read the more you think. The more you think the smarter you are.
We are born with nice smooth brains. It is our job to get them all wrinkly with thinking and doing.
People do not like the idea that we build our brains because then you have all those uncomfortable questions about people who are apparently NOT thinking. They prefer to try to put it off on something else. In fact they prefer to put it off on anything else.
The latest thing is that there is a limited amount of "smart" and so if parents do thing with their kids that improves their smarts then they are taking it from someone else.
Don't laugh. I have had a social worker sit across from me and tell me that home schooling my youngest was wrong for that very reason. If she got smarter other kids would be dumber.
Well, i got 7 of ten already. :)
Let’s hear your top ten and any other Freepers can chime in.
bttt
I would place it right behind the Bible in foundational books.
It was one of the first books printed on the printing press after the Bible so at least some people used to agree with me.
Your comic book story reminded me of what happened with my children. I encouraged my kids to read something every day, didn’t care what it was. My youngest resisted until I told him that reading the sports page every day counted. It worked! Happy reader!
Drunk, moping and whacking off in public are no way to go through life son.
Same principle. They bought the encyclopedia and presumably used it.
And they ordered and paid for and presumably read the magazines.
Good for them. (And you)
I love giving good books to children as gifts.
Off the top of my head and subject to great changes:
Farmer Boy
Aesops Fables, well illustrated
Go Dog Go
Curious George
Paddle to the Sea
Peter Rabbit
The Great Brain
Billy and Blaze
The Ride of Paul Revere, well illustrated
Ramona the Pest
Oh yes, my reading skills were greatly increased by comic books. My dad was a huge comic book collector himself. Good times!
Correlation does not establish causation.
Well, as my wife reminded me ( but I do remember! ) , we had a small bookshelf in our apartment when I was in grad school, and our daughter, still crawling, would ritualistically pull all the books off the shelf, and leaf through them, not knowing a thing about them or what they meant.
She became a teacher, and still is today.
( And, as a matter of fact, but beside the point, she’s the mother of two of our three grandchildren. )
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