Always reading - only the format changes
Seven decades of reading... There must be something in it!
I recall a reading explosion when I was an eight year old. It started with The Voyages of Captain Cook (1700s, book written in the 19th century). Soon followed the other 16 books in the school library, (one teacher school, one room, 3 classes - and I was off.
The previous week's newspapers would arrive at our farm on a Monday so I could bring my parents up to date with world happenings and local social activity. My father claimed that I read the spots off the paper. I could give him the tide heights and shipping information for the Mackay Harbour, forty miles away~ useful information for someone on a sugar farm I'm sure.
At 10, I started a column for the Saturday paper (In the Bush with Billy Whiz). It ran for five years. I learned a lot about language and also about coercion, bribery, and suggestion to get my hand written copy into the city by the deadline. I practised on anyone going vaguely in that direction for whatever reason. I soon found that love-sick country boys with girlfriends in the city were easy targets for manipulation.
And so we come to the present. I am sure my current holdings must rival the Library of Congress. (I used to compare them to The National Library in Australia, but I have since moved, and my available books are arriving in deluges.
Hard copy, computer, tablet, other peoples' books, used books: all come to my purview.
I get a tremendous amount of reading material from Scribd.com. 
The covers here are from my latest sampling. These are my non-fiction challenge for the next few days, although the content is providing me with an education to last me a lifetime; they fill a gap in "what I don''t know that I dont know''. Both are high content books with 1,000 pages between them. 10 pages a day would last 100 days. I have chosen to go the opposite at 100 pages a day at least, as I have other things to read already.
A couple of hours a week I spend tutoring reading at the local elementary school. Today's students are encouraged to go for speed and comprehension; recognition of words has superseded correct spelling.
My main message is the development of a love of reading. With hindsight I can recognize its benefits and rewards. The young are yet to see this for themselves.
Back in the days when I lived with the dinosaurs...
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