Juneathon #Day 11

Juneathon, Juneathon, why-did-i-ever-say-i'd-do-it-?-athon. Another day, more rain, and another day with no rollerblading and only a few stomach crunches to count for 'exercise'. How rubbish is that?

CC's day was no better, she had tutor this morning from -10-11.30 followed by a mock test at a local grammar school from 2-4. BB recently bought us a new home PC, so CC gets the old one in her room. To achieve this we needed to clear the books from under her desk. At the moment there is a big London-based scheme to improve the literacy of the capital's children. There has been various stats banded about - including that some children have only an Argos catalogue to read at home (Wow!), and that a quarter of children leaving primary school (aged 11) are unable to read. Also, most suprisingly, one in three children has no books of their own. Shocking isn't it, read all about it here :

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23955105-the-capitals-future-depends-on-literacy.do

When we cleared out CC's bookstore under her desk I made her count them. The photo below shows her busy at work this afternoon.

In all she counted 170 books, we both agreed that she had the books that all those other children should have had. Obviously she doesn't need that many books, but she has actually read them all, and she makes me take her to the library to get more out, and she gets them out of the school library too. She's into reading, I'm into reading. I have a blog, she has a blog. (http://thecoolcupcake.blogspot.com/). I guess you could say that she's a chip off the old block. Except, there's one big difference, my parents were not bookish at all really. I was the kid with the Argos catalogue, devouring every word, reading every advertisement that I passed (out loud - must've drove my parents mad). I was thinking about this last night, and I remember reading the Enid Blyton books over and over again. I also remember reading the Virginia Andrews series of books starting with one called 'Flowers in the Attic'. And that's it. I used to beg to go to the library, sometimes I got to go, most of the time I didn't. I would be told to stop reading to help my mother with chores, or just be told to stop reading. No reason. (Or none that I could see or understand anyway.)

My love of books has never faded, I find it weird when I go to someone's house and they have no books .. what do they read ? I find myself thinking.. I think I have books in every room, except maybe my bedroom. Lately I've tried to stop buying too many books and go to the library more. I'm really enjoying it. I would urge people to get down to the library, it's a really great way to find out what's going on in your local community too.

So, let's hear it for the written word - whether it's billboards, leaflets, magazines, novels, manuals - let's get reading.

Ah yes, back to Juneathon - tomorrow we will be up mega early for BB's half marathon - yet it's his turn this week, we're off to Southend (on the coast) for the day.. I don't know what the weather's going to be doing, but either way I'll be going for a nice, long walk with Juneathon in mind.