We need to talk. 

All that reading we do online, it's changing us.  It's a silent process, more than a decade in the making. 

As reading changes, so does writing, thought, mind...

So let's put our phones down for a minute.  While we're at it, we'll tell Facebook to take a hike...Medium too.  Because this change--nearly imperceptible, scratching at us--it's worth our (undivided) attention.  Even if that attention has become...fleeting.

We can see it in our writing, but it goes deeper: the nature of our thought, our ideas is changing. Writing, in the end, is just thought and language on paper--or on a screen.  

Thought and language...language and writing... all of it jumbled into a black bag with a velvet interior.  Go on, reach in there.  Feel around, try to grasp what you can't see. 

The contents? That ever-changing matter that is as familiar as it is mysterious?

It's just... who we are, after all.  

Set a reading challenge worthy of a writer.

Why? 

Because writers never cease to struggle, as they translate life into language.

Because writers invent themselves with every book adventure and take their language with them.

Because when you read a great book, you are already embarking on the writer's journey.  

Because when you read, you write the story too. 

There is no destination.  

You pick up a book and travel to distant lands and cultures.  You find new homelands that you could never otherwise visit... linger in misty places that exist only in fantasy.  

You take on the lives of your favorite characters, explore their worlds, drink their tea, feel their carpet under your feet.  You know their struggles, their tragedies.

You forge meaning.  

It's the journey of a lifetime.

Ready to go? 

This is the moment where you pack your bags, where we make sure you have everything you need for your journey. 

Everything is new, so don't plan too far ahead.

Focus first on the next few months--the next 1-3 books.  After that, you may not see things the same way anymore.  

You may find you're a different sort of traveler.  

And here are a few more travel tips before you go!

Remember those choose your own adventure books?  

At the end of each chapter, you had to choose between your options: steal a key, go into a cave, return home... it was up to you.  

Your book journey is such an adventure.  

It's also the adventure of a lifetime.

Books are the places you'll go and the people you'll meet on your travel. And each one will leave you a slightly different person. 

Which adventures will you choose?  

So what book should I choose? I should pick something based on my reading level, right?  Something easy if I'm just starting out...

It's more complicated than that.

I love teaching because it reminds me: the human family is made up of so many kinds of thinkers--each perfect! 

We have unique ways of seeing the world, relating and learning.  

Knowing your preferences and how you may differ from others can help you enjoy your language learning, your reading habit...

Life in general really!

I have two things to ask you today:

• Would you indulge me for a moment?  (and)
• Have you ever thought of yourself as a comic book character?

Seriously.  

Maybe you're not a big fan of graphic novels.  (Or maybe you are!) 

Personally, my exposure to graphic novels comes largely from the fact that my husband is a 'comic' fanatic.  They are in my house staring me in the face and they are beautiful... so I pick them up, take a walk in a strange land.

How could I resist?

Even if these books are outside the realm of what I normally enjoy, I find them engrossing--I particularly love the concept of the Origin Story.

If you're reading books to perfect your English, there is a good chance that you're not satisfied with just learning the grammar, the syntax, the pronunciation.  You want to make the language--and the culture--your own.

There's also a chance that you find yourself living in more than one language, more than one culture. 

You'll have to decide who you are in English. Which parts of your native culture you will hold on to. Which parts of your new culture you'll embrace. 

You will have that singular experience of feeling foreign--not just in a new culture, but also when and if you return to your country of origin!  Language changes you, as does travel and living abroad. 

No matter where you make your home, you may have to ask yourself where, exactly, you fit in. 

Books can help. 

Read.

Read because you love to.  Read because you can't see yourself without a book in your hand.  Read because the world would be a better place if more people read more books.  Read to escape.  Read to experience.  Read to grow. 

Read in English.  Because you already live part of your life in English, don't you?

Follow your passion for books and your English will rise to the occasion.

Time is our most precious currency.  It makes us choose, select, edit.  What stays? What goes? 

Who are we, in the end?  The way we spend our most valuable currency--our time. 

To put it bluntly, if you think you have to choose between the challenge of making English your own and your other passions--you'll have to pick one or the other. 

The way I see it, you have to choose both.

If you love books, if you can't imagine life without reading, then pick up your book in English and you've just found a way to engage two passions at once--to beat time.

The same is true for your reader's journal.  Incorporate more of what you love into what you're already doing.