[dagw]

I have two young children and I'm building up a library for them

A slight tangent, but as a parent, one thing I've found is that any books my kid discovers for themselves (via friends, social media or just picking up random books in the library) means so much more to them than anything I've ever recommended. Anything I recommend starts out with a massive handicap, since in their minds anything 'old and lame' people like probably sucks. Only if there is nothing else to read will they begrudgingly try one of my books.

And to be fair after about age 11, I rarely read anything my dad recommended to me either, much preferring to discover my own books. So by all means make sure they're surrounded by books, just don't expect your kids to read anything you try to push on them.

[musicale]

Somehow we always had lots of books around and I got great books as gifts. And a library card. And gift cards for bookstores. All of these were terrific, and recommendations tended to be spot on.

I wonder if reading is harder to get into now because of the many distracting forms of digital media. Those seem to have replaced recreational reading for me, and I'm not really happy about primarily reading for work rather than for fun.