Ready, Set, READ!

We started with sounds and symbols, moving up to words and, gradually, whole phrases.  We added intonation, sound effects, character voices, proper pauses for punctuation, and hushed whispers for effect.  Our material was as varied as the clouds, our curiosity as thirsty as Kalahari soil, our thrill and delight as high as the moon.  Thusly, we learned to read.  Thusly, we grasped the hands of the past, present, and future in the written word.

Just in time for your summer vacation, we’ve resurrected 31 to bring you an issue all about reading.  Be it book, magazine, newspaper, or Internet page, sources of the word never cease to draw us in, intrigue, fascinate, horrify, broaden, and challenge us.  Which is why we love them.

This issue has a little bit of everything you love to read about reading.  Looking for something to read at the beach?  Angela Arlia and Juliet LeClerc will whet your palate with their book reviews.  And speaking of book reviews, don’t miss Holly Beal’s insightful review of a book about the importance of reading books to your children.  Want to remember what it was like to fall in-love with reading as a child?  Travel down memory lane in Marni Myers’s “Reading, Like Magic,” and Angela Arlia’s “Required Reading.”  Rachel Morrissey confesses that her love for books isn’t what it used to be in “Sweet Surrender.” 

Also in this issue are two of the fabulous regular 31 features you know and love:  The Grammarian and the iconic Top 31 List. 

We’ve written the words; now it’s up to you to bring them to life.  So pour some lemonade, settle into your favorite chair, and read!