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The Trouble with Reading (Part I)–Learning to Read
I recently had some eye-opening experiences regarding reading that I want to share. I love to read, have a reading specialist credential, and am a retired educator of 34 years. I also love to learn, and I did just that this week in reading two different books. I gained a new appreciation of the struggles some readers have with reading.
Although we often think of dyslexia as letter reversals, it is actually a problem that is much wider than that one symptom. Dyslexia is an impaired ability to read and is not correlated with IQ. It can manifest itself in many ways. I don’t have dyslexia, but an Advance Reader Copy I read this week made me feel like I do. Anytime certain pairs of letters should have been present on the page, they were omitted. Here are some examples of the defective text along with what should have appeared on the page.
stu ed-full (stuffed full)
e fat one (The fat one)
on re (on fire)
e notes owed (The notes flowed)
“at’s a rst.” (“That’s a first.”)
BUT MY FAVORITE was a character named “Cli.” It seemed like an unusual name; about half way through the book, I started laughing at myself. I applied the missing letter pattern and discovered that the character is probably named “Cliff.”
The missing letters were: th, ff, fl, fi. Spacing was not always consistent with missing letters. Without context and my understanding of the importance of context, I would have been totally lost. Being able to pick up the pattern was also important. As it was, I had to make myself finish reading the book for the purpose of reviewing, but the experience was less than enjoyable and quite tiring. I put myself in the place of readers who have reading difficulties—letter reversals, words moving across the page, etc. I have renewed sympathy for their struggle. Professionally there are still arguments over causes and remedies, but being given more time to process text and learning coping strategies are helpful to many readers. Those who find reading “natural” and easy can remind themselves that we all have strengths and be thankful that reading is so accessible for them while being supportive and understanding of those for whom reading is a fight for meaning.
Let me assure you that Advance Reader Copies rarely have that many problems and that reviewers are warned that these ebooks have not always undergone the final editing process when they are presented to reviewers. The published book should be and usually is free from errors.
Check back in tomorrow for my reflections on a different type of difficulty I experienced with the other book.
Stay: Discovering Grace, Freedom, and Wholeness Where You Never Imagined Looking
Stay: Discovering Grace, Freedom, and Wholeness Where You Never Imagined Looking
by Anjuli Paschall
A spiritual journey is such a personal adventure. Anjuli Paschall shares hers in the book Stay. She also reaches out to other women encouraging them to lean into God through the irritations of daily life and the times of actual trauma and to stay with the pain of hard places because you’ll find God there. She suggests that, instead of building up walls of protection and withdrawing from the fray or working harder to force things to happen, we need to stay with Jesus and “drink life-giving water.” With intriguing chapter titles like “The Guard Shack: An Invitation to Make Mistakes” and “Old Spaghetti Factory: An Invitation to Hold On,” this book is filled with anecdotes and Paschall’s descriptions of how God led her to grow spiritually.
Paschal is a good writer and very effective at drawing the reader into her frame of mind as she navigates the various circumstances in her life. I highlighted many passages and agreed with most of the things she said. I am amazed at the number of turns in her life journey. She is the mother of five, wife of a pastor, photographer, founder of a social media site that helps other moms in truly desperate straits, and a spiritual counselor. Now add writer to that list.
Realizing that I am isolating statements that come from a rich context, I feel I must point out what I perceive to be a major conflict. Towards the end of the book, the author states “My one and only purpose in life is to be loved by God.” I disagree with that and she does too as earlier in the book she states: “We all have one calling. One deep, right, true, foundational calling in life—to love God and to love others.” That philosophy is found in the Bible in Matthew 22 in the New Testament and in Exodus 20 and Leviticus 19 in the Old Testament. Although, I have a few points of disagreement, in general I find this book to be refreshing in the author’s honesty and transparency. She doesn’t try to appear to have it all together. She shares her fears and vulnerabilities as she also shares her hopes and dreams. She encourages women to abandon shame over never being enough and stay the course resting and trusting in Jesus.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Bethany House for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Christian, Self-Help
Notes: Discussion questions are included.
Publication: March 31, 2020—Bethany House
Memorable Lines:
I’m learning to be okay with my mistakes. They don’t define me or determine my worth, but simply direct me to God.
I believe we all can be placeholders of heaven for others. We can create a seat at a table, offer a single cup of coffee, leave bread on a doorstep, or clear an hour in our schedule. God will continually bring us people who are desperately in need of home. If we can embrace each other’s differences, move toward the disabled, welcome the foreigner, laugh with a child, talk with the elderly, all kinds of heaven can burst open like a flower in bloom here on earth. Even the tiniest spaces can become a place for others to taste eternity.
No amount of getting, accomplishing, or achieving will ever satisfy the soul. The soul focused on gaining power, influence, and admiration will only grow hungrier.
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