A Little Bookshelf

We all know the old saying, "You are what you eat."  Well I recently came across this article saying:

You think what you read.

When I read that, I thought, "Yes!" because I am passionate about good books for children.  I believe that what they read is important.  And that they need to read good books.  A well written book is nourishing and fulfilling.  It leaves you with a sense of wonder and questions about your world.  The characters become real and stay with you.  

And most importantly, when good books are read, they will continue to be written.  This is important because there is so much junk out there.  I know how hard it is to write books.  Even badly written books.  When I was a teenager I read a lot of teen romance books.  (It's true - please don't hold it against me!  Thankfully it was just a phase and I grew out of it.  In my defence, at the time there weren't a lot of books out there for young girls dealing with romantic relationships).  Anyway, after reading far too many of these books, I decided that I knew the formula and I would write one.  After all, how hard could it be?  Turns out, very hard.  I think I managed to write about a page and a half and the story was finished.  I had no idea how those authors managed to write 90 pages of the stuff.  I still don't.  

Writing is hard.  Good writing even harder.  We must support the writers who tell the stories that entertain, comfort and inform us.  If we want those beautiful books to be written, we must buy them.  We must read them.  We must borrow them.  We must demand them!