Summer reading program

The summer reading program at the local library branch was one of the things I loved during the months when school was out. I read like a fiend in those days. Some of the motivation for summertime reading was getting the stamps on the sheet that tracked how many books I consumed. Beyond filling up every sport, the pay-off for reaching a certain number was some kind of prize. I vaguely recall that the reward was a free food item, maybe a personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut. Still, as a voracious reader, I would have read plenty without the incentive of a proverbial carrot.

Blame the movies, TV, and the internet if you are so inclined--I'm not--but I don't read at anything approaching the pace that I did when reading was one of my major activities. Good grief, I don't necessarily read a book a month. Or every other month.

Since I work in the world of academia, I still observe a summer break of sorts. I'm still working, but the demands and schedule are different, or at least they should be. Monday brings the start of this summer, so I vow to start taking time out for reading of printed and bound works, not just whatever is on my computer screen. I have enough unread books around my place that I certainly don't have a shortage of options.

I won't be getting a piece of paper stamped for each book I finish or a treat at the end of it. Instead I'll get the satisfaction from the act of reading, which was the entire point of the library program back then.