Reading with Ian

For the last week or so, Ian and I have been reading together in the evenings. I didn’t want to post anything too early and jinx it, but we’re on to Chapter seven of The Eye of the World, and he is really starting to get engaged.

I had been pondering trying this for a bit, for a couple of reasons. The first is that I have been listening to the Wheel of Time Spoilers Podcast. It is going through the books a chapter or two at a time, combing over the books and freely talking about how early events connect to later things, etc. You don’t want to listen to this podcast if you haven’t already read the books.

And for Father’s Day (which didn’t get a post this year, for some reason…) I got a French language copy of the first book of the Wheel of Time series. I started reading it, and was overcome with the desire to read it with someone. I had already inflicted the series on Tammy once.

He knows almost nothing about these books, other than them being huge and taking up a whole shelf in the living room. The prologue was touch and go, and then the first chapter he was antsy. Then I started reading right next to him, and he is reading along as I read aloud. We’ve just gotten past the Winternight and the West Wood chapters, and now he’s really getting excited. I hope it keeps going. He is stopping me and asking questions when he doesn’t understand something, and I am asking him questions about the story and he can tell me lots about it. As always with Ian, it’s interesting what he fixates on, but the story is there. 🤨

I am having a bit of a race with myself. Which is faster: Simon reading the French copy, or reading the English copy aloud to a ten year old? So far, it’s neck-and-neck.