Thursday, February 16, 2012

Snobby Bookworm

File:Bookworm damage on Errata page.jpg
bookworm damage

This morning, my eight-year old daughter asked me if she could have a Kindle --

"Like you Mom."

"Well, how about we see if you like using mine first. I'll download a book for you. What would you like?"

"Tinker Bell."

"Excuse me?"

She dug around in her backpack then produced a paper-back chapter book (published by Disney!) about Tinker Bell's adventures - you know - beyond the Peter Pan years. (For those fans who want to know what she's been up to since Neverland.)

"Ahem . . . that's nice dear. How about  A Tale of Despereaux? Caddie Woodlawn? Little House in the Big Woods? Something with a gold sticker on the front cover, OK?"

"Tinker Bell."

I once made a snide remark to my younger sister when we were kids. I had implied that she never read anything and she said that yes, she did too read.
I mumbled under my breath: "Yeah -- Junior Book of the Month!"
This remark it hurt her feelings for a long time. She still brings it up occasionally - half in jest.

As I thought about this, something occurred to me: my sister has hundreds of friends on Facebook. She meets up with these people, they go on cruises and stuff.

I read; I blog; I play Scrabble with my husband.

I can't expect my daughter to be a little clone of me. Although I really want her to plumb the depths of literature the way I like to, she's not a worm. She's a butterfly. A real social butterfly. She makes me get out of the house. She makes me have company over.

My friends are books; her friends are people.





What are you -- bookworm or butterfly?

3 comments:

  1. I'm truely a bookworm, but I'm working on being more social.

    It's amazing how our children stretch us and change us. They "demand" that we grow in the most uncomfortable ways. (No, I don't mean the stretch marks from pregnancy, but I suppose it does apply literally, too.) What a blessing that you are able to see your differances and accept them (but a little Caddie Woodlawn won't hurt either).

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  2. Sounds like my daughter and I. I'm a bookworm, she is definitely a butterfly.

    It's always nice to find another person reading through the Well-Educated Mind! How far along are you in your journey?

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  3. Welcome fellow WEM traveler!
    I started with the auto-biography list. I'm on the third book.
    Blessings!

    ReplyDelete

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Adriana