From One Reader to Another
“In the great green room,” I begin. Two little blue eyes widen in wonder as they drink in colors and shapes.
“There was a telephone, and a red balloon. And a picture of…” I pause for dramatic effect before turning the blocky page. Tiny feet kick in excited anticipation. “A cow, jumping over the moon!”
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It doesn’t matter in the slightest that Baby Sam and I probably both know every line of Goodnight Moon by heart at this point. No matter how many times I sit him down in my lap and crack open the cover, the magic of reading together infects us both with the warm fuzzies and we share sweet giggles together, snuggled between the pages of a good book.
It’s no secret—I really like books. If you’ve been to my house, my prominently displayed collection has probably caught your eye. My friends and family frequently gift me with book bags, book-inspired t-shirts and accessories, and even book-themed candles. I’ve loved books for pretty much forever. We have a picture of me when I was Sam’s age, staring intently at a picture book my sister Laura was reading to me (well, she was only about 3 years old then, so I say “reading” rather loosely.) All this to say, the books I love have always been a part of my life.
The thing about books though, is that there are always more of them out there than you’ll ever be able to read. So many books, so little time, as book lovers often lament. How cool is that?! For millennia, literacy was rare and books were limited to the rich. But now, my four-month-old owns more books than the average medieval peasant would see in a lifetime. We live in a culture where the ability to read is assumed and anyone can walk into a library and be surrounded by literally thousands of books FOR FREE. And the only problem we have to complain about is that there are too many books available than we can read in one lifetime. Wow, we are so very blessed.
So if there truly are “so many books and so little time,” then it would make sense that we want the books we spend our time reading to be worth it. “Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books,” so says the charming book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. So, what factors distinguish good books from bad? I’m so glad you asked cause I just so happen to have prepared a long-winded explanation of my personal book evaluation technique. 
