My parents live close by, just up the street. We very much enjoy that fact, finally able to share more of life than we did for years while in different states. One of many things they share with us, my own family, is their daily newspaper. When finished reading, they promptly roll the sections all back up into the same elastic and place the roll in a spot on their kitchen desk to await our next visit. If a few days go by and the pile starts to grow, then there'll be a porch delivery at our house. They know I've always loved to read the newspaper, even if only skimming. My husband is more of a read-every-word type; for self-preservation he doesn't indulge as regularly. So, if I come across something that I suspect will be of interest to him, my cutting out the article and leaving it for him to read when convenient is our best use of time. It works well.

Different kinds of readers find complementing opportunities for sharing. Our daughter drives her family van when their family travels because she loves to hear her husband read something like Harry Potter aloud, complete with full accents and sound effects. I'm glad those grandchildren get in on that. Another daughter this week called asking about a specific book's title for her book club, a reminder that those fun social outlet/reading activities are growing in popularity. A friend mentioned recently how she was typing up her 103 year-old mother's hand-written 7,000 page life history---what a gift to her posterity! How does one generation like hers have an effect on the next, and the next and the next..., without leaving words? I'm involved with a reading program for this reason -- I want to pass along a simple gift like newspaper-reading farther down the road.