Portrait of a Mother Reader - Susie, USA
Reading habits, rhythms and book recommendations of Mother Readers the world over
I'm
, mother to three sons aged 4, 6, and 8. I am a homemaker and home educator and my husband and I live in northern Florida, U.S.A. We love to read aloud together. I started reading voraciously on my own about 8 years ago. I'm happy to share about my journey here!
Who inspired you to become the reader you are today?
My mother-in-law inspired my habit of reading aloud with my children. As a newlywed twelve years ago, I often looked through the books that lined her shelves. She still has many of the paperback books she had read to her five children. My husband often talks with gratitude about how his mother read good books aloud to him when he was young. When our oldest son was born, we began reading together a lot! As an adult, I became friends with someone who was herself a reader, and I wanted to read more so I could have something to share in our conversations.
Who are your favourite authors?
Growing up I remember loving The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper and Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton. Today, some of my favourite non-fiction authors are Alan Jacobs, Elisabeth Elliot, C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L'Engle, and Katherine Paterson. Some of my favorite fiction authors are middle grade novelists I didn't read until my 30s: E.B. White, Eleanor Estes, George Selden, and Linda Sue Park.
Who do you discuss books with?
I mostly talk about books with my friends (over texting or in person).
What are you currently reading?
Right now I am reading:
The Way of the Storyteller by Ruth Sawyer
The Invisible Child by Katherine Paterson
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
What’s in your TBR pile?
You Are What You Love by James K.A. Smith
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Knowing God by J.I. Packer
A Voice from the South by Anna Julia Cooper
Death by Living by N.D. Wilson.
What have you read so far this year that you would recommend?
I just finished Rembrandt is in the Wind by Russ Ramsey last weekend. It was a quick read about eight artists and their influence - recommend! I read aloud The Princess and the Goblin and its sequel, The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald to my sons recently. I am continuing a recent foray into fantasy, a genre I'm not always drawn to but am learning to enjoy. My sons loved MacDonald's books.
What are your favourite genres?
For my personal reading: middle grade classics, memoirs and essay collections.
To read aloud to my sons over the years: picture books like ones by Sandra Boynton, Kevin Henkes, Bill Peet, and Ezra Jack Keats, Arnold Lobel; also fairy tales and fables like Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges and Milo Winter's Aesop's Fables Treasury. I also love endearing middle grade novels, like Charlotte's Web by E.B. White or Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson.
What were your favourite books you read in 2023?
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles and The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim.
What are you most looking forward to reading in 2024?
I have been putting off reading Middlemarch by George Eliot for too long, and I am determined that this is the year I'd complete it! I am 176 pages in.
Do you read books more than once?
Yes. I reread the Bible because it sustains my Christian faith. I reread books which contain book lists (so I know what to add to my library list for my sons). I reread books that have been meaningful in different seasons in my life just to revisit marginalia (like Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning, A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle, etc). I also love paging through cookbooks over and over. For the last several years with my young children, I have reread picture books many times.
What have been your most treasured read alouds and why?
My favorite question! Reading aloud with my sons has been one of my life's joys. Some of our favourite read aloud chapter books have been:
The Moffat series by Eleanor Estes
Mary Poppins series by P.L. Travers
Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia Maclachlan
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson
A Cricket in Times Square by George Selden
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
James Herriot's Treasury For Children
Tippy Lemmey by Patricia McKissack
My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
As my sons and I read each of these books, we grew more connected to one another and to the characters in the story. We laughed together, we puzzled out what might happen next, we wondered what we might have done if we were a part of the book, and we repeated beautiful or funny passages together. Not only did these books bond us but they also held my sons' interest. They asked me to keep reading, a sure sign that something important was happening in their hearts and minds.
What do you use as bookmarks?
Scraps of paper, mostly: old receipts, a torn corner of last Sunday's church bulletin, etc. Something not too bulky and not too precious.
What books have shaped the person and mother you have become?
Growing up, I was not a regular or confident reader. Even when I majored in English in college, I still didn't read for pleasure. When I taught middle and high school English, I read the books I taught (my favourite of which was Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor which I read together with my 7th grade Language Arts class). I probably only read a couple of novels in my 20s.
But it wasn't until I entered my 30s that I began to read for pleasure and conceive of myself as a reader. Now, I have been a reader for about as long as I have been a mother (8 years). These books have shaped me over the last several years:
The Bible
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle
Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot
Invitation to Silence and Solitude by Ruth Haley Barton
Home Education and A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg
What is your favourite book of all time ever?
I'm going with Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.
When do you read and for how long do you read for each day?
I generally read between 30 minutes and 2 hours every day. I read around 10-30 minutes in the morning, then anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour in snatches throughout the day, then around 10-30 minutes in the evening.
Do you read everyday or only on certain days of the week?
Every day.
Do you read multiple books or one at a time?
Multiple.
Do you read consistently or does your reading rhythm ebb and flow?
I vacillate between slow spells and bursts of reading, depending on my schedule, my family's needs, and my own capacities. I love when I can get totally immersed in a long-ish book. I was able to read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles this way over a couple of days last summer and it was wonderful!
Where do you love to read?
While sitting on my couch, in a backyard chair in the shade, at my dining table, or at a coffee shop.
Where do you store your book collection?
I'd like to say most of the books are in a couple of central locations on tidy, comely shelves. Alas, books reside haphazardly in nearly every room in the house. Some we keep together on shelves, like the tall shelves in our living room, the shelves in my husband's office, or the cubby-style shelves in my sons' bedroom. Beyond that, tottering stacks abound.
Where do you source books from?
I get most books from the library, a used bookstore, Thriftbooks, other online booksellers and also as gifts from friends and family.
Where do you get book recommendations from?
I get ideas from the footnotes of the books I read, mostly. Then, I get ideas from friends, books with book lists (like Honey for the Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt, Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Treasury, and The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer), and some online sources such as Joel Miller's newsletter or Marvin Olasky Books at The Discovery Institute.
What formats do you read in?
When my children were 5 and under, I listened to a lot of audiobooks. I still listen to audiobooks sometimes, like Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill, which I've been savoring for the last several months. But these days, if I am reading a book, it's probably the in-print kind.
How do you keep track of what you have read?
I used to be more fastidious about this. For about 10 years, I kept up yearly Pinterest boards that catalogued what I read. I liked looking through the book covers. But I'm moving towards doing fewer things online, so I think I'll just have an old-fashioned list in a book or on my fridge or something from now on. I do try to keep an up-to-date list of what I read with my sons in Google Drive.
How do you keep track of what you want to read?
Sporadically. I sometimes add books to shopping carts on Thriftbooks or Amazon and just leave them there until I think I'll remember the book, then I'll just remove them from the cart (I read in other interviews here that I am not alone in this habit). I sometimes take screenshots on my phone or email myself ideas. I sometimes write myself little notes and then misplace them. I find if I make an official list, I just want to shirk it. I like the freedom of reading "at whim," as writer Alan Jacobs talks about in his book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. So I get ideas here and there, but then I just read what I want to at any given time.
Why do you read?
I read because it is intellectually satisfying, spiritually nourishing, emotionally regulating and reliably refreshing. I also read aloud with the children in my life because the depth of connection that comes with that particular shared experience is priceless.
Thank you for reading Susie’s Mother Reader Portrait.
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Middlemarch!!!!!! Hang with it, it pays off big time.
Charlotte's Web is also one of my favorites! And part of the reason my oldest is named Charlotte ❤️