Book storage to encourage reading?

bigsis144

Sun, Mar 14 2021, 5:30 pm

I was a voracious reader as a kid, and grew up in a house full to bursting with books. I probably read many books I might not have picked out myself just because they were close by and I was bored, and then ended up interested enough to finish them.

But my kids (8 and 11) are NOT readers like I was, and they rarely re-read the books they do approve of (except Calvin and Hobbes comics, which they read over and over).

So I basically have three kinds of books at home:
1) library books, that stay in the house for 2-6 weeks. My kids have no interest in picking out books, so I just kind of guess what things will pique their interest and some go untouched the whole time.
2) books we own that I deliberately bought and want to own.
(a) for me: I just couldn’t imagine not owning a copy of The Phantom Tollbooth, whether or not my kids like it, etc.
(b) for my kids: I saw the kids reading Calvin and Hobbes from the library so many times that I bought our own copies, etc.
3) books we own that my kids ignore. This includes old picture books that I’m saving for my toddler, or chapter books they have no interest in. For example, I used to read all the Great Illustrated Classics as a kid (abridged versions of classics like The Three Musketeers or Ivanhoe or A Tale of Two Cities, etc.) and took a dozen of them from my parents’ house last time we visited. Or books they’ve been gifted by grandparents, etc. But the kids ignore them, and at worst the books get knocked over and left on the floor or stuffed haphazardly onto shelves because the kids care so little about them.

And also, I try to put books in enticing places to encourage kids to read - at eye level rather than floor or above their heads, or in the living room next to the couch rather than up or down a flight of stairs. Both kids are territorial about their bedrooms, so books that are in one kid’s room are off limits to the other unless they make an arrangement or I rotate the contents of their shelves.

I don’t really know what my question is exactly... just... y’all got any advice for book storage to encourage reading?

The prime real estate of “eye level, public places” is very limited in my house, and anything not there will be ignored at best and mistreated at worst.