A Moment with Mother Nerd

I’m celebrating Mother’s Day on the blog by having Mother Nerd herself here to share some thoughts on a reading life. She graciously sat down with me to chat about things like what she recollects from childhood reading, her ideas about whether books should be “required reading” or not, and a philosophy on how to help your own kids to become readers. Plus, she leaves us with strong book recommendations, so don’t miss out on those.

Without further ado, please enjoy this bookish conversation with Mother Nerd!

Q: All right, so, Merm, we’re talking about books and reading today. When did you become a reader?

MN: I don’t remember exactly when I became a reader, but I always had the Little House [on the Prairie] set. I had the Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland, a classics set. I think I had [The Chronicles of] Narnia. We had the Book Mobile at school because we didn’t have a library. So, once a month, the Book Mobile came.

Q: You didn’t have a library?

MN: There was no money for a library. But we had to do book reports every month, so you had to pick a book and I always remember getting Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends. I did a lot of the Choose Your Own Adventure or ones like that. Judy Bloom was big, when I was growing up.

Q: I’ve always known you to be a reader, but the stories from your childhood are all sports. 

MN: I would say I wasn’t as avid a reader back then as I am now, but I still read. Only because I think I was just more active. I didn’t have time to sit and read all the time, you know what I mean? We were outside playing or doing sports or, in the summer, we were at the pool all the time. I read, but not exclusively.

Q: And Grandmo is a reader…

MN: Oh, yeah, she’s always been a reader. We always had a tall bookshelf full of books. I’m not one hundred percent sure how much my dad read other than the newspaper or magazines. We didn’t have a library close enough to walk to; you had to drive to it. And libraries were just different back then. You had to be quiet, and I think I relied more on the Book Mobile through grade school, or, maybe once a quarter, the Scholastic Book Newsletter would come home and we could order books from that.

Q: Then in college you take any literature classes?

MN: Shakespeare.

Q: Shakespeare.

MN: I probably didn’t read very much in college. Maybe over the summers.

Q: Well, it wasn’t your degree, and it’s not like you have oodles of time for leisurely reading then.

MN: Right, right. I read a lot because with History and Poli-Sci we had to, but I wouldn’t say they were novels. A couple people I knew through the summers would recommend books, and I would read when I could. But I can’t say I was a huge reader in college.

Q: What’d you think of Old Bill?

MN: Old Bill?

Q: Shakespeare.

MN: Oh, *chuckles * I liked Shakespeare. We had to read Romeo and Juliet in high school, but it wasn’t until I took the class that I actually learned how to read it. Because I think you have to know how to read Shakespeare in order to start to understand it. It looks like it’s written like a poem, but it’s not. You have to follow the punctuation, and sometimes it doesn’t end at the line or the whatever so understanding how to read it helped. We did, in a semester, probably six or eight plays. I thought it was interesting. Probably one of the better classes I took outside of my major.

Q: And now, in your adulthood, you’ve read classics. Who’s your favorite classic author?

MN: Probably Dickens. I’ve always liked Dickens. Mark Twain is very similar but on this side of the water. They write about social things of the time, but they’re funny. They kind of look at people and life in a humorous way. We’re reading Great Expectations now, and some of the things he’s almost making a joke about. Not about or at people but because people are funny and the things they do are funny.

Q: Right, because you kind of laugh at Joe and Pip and their interactions. They sit in the corner and eat their bread together, comparing bites. It’s kinda silly.

MN: Yeah, silly things. Mark Twain is kind of the same. Some of what he writes about is that social commentary but in a funny way. Maybe sarcastic.

Q: Do you have a classic author or book that you wish more people read? Or that you think should be required reading in your life?

MN: No, and I don’t know if anything should be required.

Q: Oh?

MN: I get why high schools have required reading. I get it. It’s part of the curriculum. Like in high school, we read A Separate Peace, and we read J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. We read Romeo and Juliet. We read The Outsiders. I can’t say that I think any of those should be required or that there is one that should be. I think in high school it should be more about just reading different things and exploring different genres. We’ve talked about how I think, in History class, why not read The Wright Brothers or Team of Rivals instead of some textbook that just spits facts out at you? That’s what history is about—the people. So, I don’t know that I have…

Q: You can’t say conclusively that a book stands out compared to all the other ones it’s in the running with to make it core curriculum. You’re more like, Every book has its merits for different reasons.

MN: Yeah, it does. For different reasons. You can pick any Dickens book and read it.

Q: Right, because there’s so many options out there why not cycle through? Why keep reading The Outsiders year after year after year?

MN: It’s a good book. I’m not saying it’s not. But there’s gotta be something else out there that’s similar. Whatever message you’re talking about in The Outsiders—class, rich versus poor—you can find a lot of books like that with kids. I think English curriculum has gotten very stale. But that’s just my opinion. I’m not an English teacher.

Q: No, but you do sub at the library. You kind of mentioned that libraries when you were growing up were a different vibe, different atmosphere than they are now. What are the main differences you see?

MN: I really only used the library later in high school when I had to start writing papers to do research. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t even know if I checked out fiction books there. At least in grade school, we had the Book Mobile. We did have a library in high school, but, again, that was mainly used to study or do research. So, I feel like libraries, for me growing up, were more about research. Same in college. I spent a lot of time at the library studying and finding materials but not pleasure reading, even though I’m sure they had all those books. Now, a lot people come in to study, and there’s still nonfiction that gets checked out. I just don’t know how much of it is being used for research like I used to or if it’s just for reading.

Q: Well, you’ve got access now to the databases or JSTOR, and you wouldn’t necessarily see those patrons using that because you can access that with your library card from home.

MN: I feel like a lot of the young people that come in—and when I say young I mean high school and college-aged kids—they’re coming in to use the meeting rooms to study. It’s the younger kids and then the older people who I see doing the actual pleasure reading, I’ll call it. Fiction, nonfiction, whatever. I don’t feel like teen books circulate very much. We have a decent section of teen books, but when you look at the carts that come off the [sorting] machine [in the back] and which ones fill up the fastest, it might take a couple of days for a teen cart to fill up.

Q: Really?

MN: Today, for instance, we probably had forty carts to shelve, and I believe only one of them was a teen cart. I don’t think teens are in there reading as much as we think or want. But that could just be their lives, as well. They’re busier. They’ve got other things going on versus young kids coming in with their parents.

Q: Or perhaps that’s the demographic that’s doing more audiobook and e-reading?

MN: It could be. I just don’t know if they’re doing any reading, to be honest with you. And, again, I think it’s just that time of life. I think you were the anomaly reading a lot as a teenager because people get too busy. Between school and sports and activities and jobs.

Q: Leisurely reading is sort of the first thing to be put to the side because books are always gonna be there or just the amount of time it takes. It is easy to sacrifice reading. 

MN: Yes.

Q: What do you wish more people knew about the library today? Because there’s so many different programs, so many different resources, what do you think people should utilize more?

MN: I think a lot of it is used very well.

Q: Oh, that’s good.

MN: At least, in our system, it is. People use the databases. There are people who come in and use Ancestry, or I’ve shown people Novelist. We show kids JSTOR. Most programs are well-attended, and they’ve got variety. There’s tech help for seniors. Homework help for kids. Ridgedale had a fix-it clinic today where you could bring in—someone saw someone bring in their smart TV to be shown how they can fix it. There’s story time for toddlers. Baby storytime. They try to do the teen activities: chess club or maker space or games. In this community, people use the library well and use it a lot. The one thing I wish they would do, which is coming from being behind the scenes, I wish they’d bring people in to show them the process of the library. You take a book—what happens when it gets returned? What does that process look like? Maybe then people would—not that people abuse the materials—maybe they’d take better care of it or maybe, when we ask for you to put one item in at a time in the AMH [Automated Material Handling system], they’d understand why. So, maybe more about the process of the library and how it works.

Q: This is a pivot, as sort of a last question. The library—you’ve always made it important to us as a place where we could go. Some of my earliest memories are of you taking us, letting us check out whatever we wanted, looking at the gerbils, whatever. What’s your philosophy, as a parent, especially as the world is so busy and there are a lot of things vying for your kid’s attention, on how you help your kid be a reader? 

MN: It wasn’t just about going [to the library], especially when you guys were younger. It was reading to you that I think fosters the reading. To read to you, and then the library has all their easy readers so that you could start to read. I think it’s about the exposure to the library. Associating the space with fun and that there’s all kinds of books there and things you can do, but you have to continue doing that at home. Just to get books…Yes, I think it’s important for your kids to look at books by themselves. I do. Maybe they make up their own stories in their head, but you also need to read to them because if you can’t read you’re missing a lot of stuff in life. You just are. Just basic. I’m not saying you gotta read a treatise on whatever. Just simple reading. Signs, going to the grocery store, instructions, maybe you gotta fill out a form. It’s important, and it has to start at home.

We pivoted one final time after this to get Mother Nerd’s book recs, one fiction and one nonfiction. The fiction came quickly, but she hemmed and hawed over the nonfiction (she had too many to choose from). I made her make a selection, though, so here they are: 

Mother Nerd’s Fiction Book Recommendation: Winds of War by Herman Wouk

Mother Nerd’s Nonfiction Book Recommendation: The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

Thank you, Mother Nerd, and a special Happy Mama’s Day to you, for being on the blog this week and for helping to fill my life with a love for literature. I wouldn’t be the reader or writer I am today without ya! ♡