We read to know we are not alone. Through books, more than through any other medium, we can have conversations with the minds of other people – how they think, what they believe, and what they value. And more importantly, we can find out more about ourselves. There is something identifying and affirming to realizing that other people have thought the same thoughts, had the same struggles and felt the same longings. Reading also provides a window into the world. There is no frigate like a book because books can take us to times and places that we could never go to in real life. We can read Perelandra and be on Venus or Ben Hur and be on the Roman Empire at the time of Christ or Cold Sassy Tree and feel what it was like to live in a small town in Georgia in the early 1900s. From an educational perspective, being well-read places us in the small percentage of people who had a broader perspective of life – the movers and shakers of the world. Why? Because readers have superior language and thinking skills. They also know about life outside their narrow slice of it. They can see both the “big picture” and the details and keep a sense of perspective because they have read enough to expand their minds beyond the parameters of their own lives. Reading books influences the children most. If books are to become an important part of our child’s world, they must appear to be important to us.