National Adult Literacy Database

March 22, 2010

This story was written by Shirley Fehr, from Summerland, British Columbia. Shirley is enrolled in literacy classes at the Literacy Now Learning Centre in Oliver, BC.

The Gift of Reading - A Success Story

by Shirley Fehr

A camping trip changed my life 27 years ago. The boys were out fishing and my girlfriend and I sat at the campsite doing nothing, sounds great. Then she got a big brown bag full of Harlequin romances out of the camper and so starts my reading story. One book was not very big and it was what she called easy reading. Maybe for her but not for me, I did not read. It took me 2 weeks to read that first book reading every day for about 2 hours a day, but I did it. Then I read another and another, plugging along. The words were simple and the story was not that hard to follow. Next were the bigger Danielle Steel books.

My family who are all avid readers were so happy they kept giving me more and more books to read. Over the next couple of years, it was one romance novel after another but it became boring. I did try fiction and fantasy but the words were too hard for me. All the made up names took forever to read and it was no fun. Murder mysteries were next and I liked them. Michael Connelly is one of my favourite authors. I have nearly all his books. My husband reads westerns and so one day I will try his books. There are autobiographies and of course, the classics. It is not quantity or even quality; it is all about doing it. There are still so many other types of books left to explore. That's the best part it's my choice. If I don't like it I don't have to read it. I often go back to a simple romance novel this is so important for me (keep it simple and have fun reading). Word by word, page by page there is no magical way to learn I just keep at it and had a dictionary handy for words I did not know.

I would like to finish my story by saying this has not been an easy journey for me but the accomplishment has been so great. The power of reading even a simple romance novel has opened the doors to a world that had been always been closed to me. Even though I can read, I still cannot spell very well. That's a whole different story. I know there are many people that have the same challenges as I do so I hope that my story will inspire you in some small way. Keep it simple, have fun, remember if you do not like it you do not have to read it and do not ever stop.

[This story was taken with permission, from The Buzz on Literacy, January 2010, a newsletter published by Literacy Now, South Okanagan-Similkameen.]