The Comfortable Reader

essentials to confidently rely on your instincts to grasp the author’s vision

  • Meaning Fairy’s Demise

    You are enough, but you must bring all of you to the text.  Your thoughts. Your emotions. Your awareness.  Reading is interactive.  It is a dynamic process between you and the marks on the page.  Both sides of this relationship must be honored.   Not only what the book says, but also what you say back…

  • Clued In

    Clued In

    But why do writers use codes and processes, instead of “coming right out and saying it?”  If writers want us to grasp their message, how can they Not be hiding it when they don’t just say it! Good Question. The answer is found in the nature of fiction.  Authors are not hiding from you.  Quite frankly,…

  • Adding Up

    Adding Up

    Writers want you to grasp their voice and message.  Readers reveal meaning from text through codes, and processes just like one discovers answers in Math. I always felt uneasy with numbers, and certainly never trusted equations with numbers and letters combined.   a2+b2=c2 4x – 7 = 3y  f (x) ≤ y ≤ g (x) …

  • Got It?

    Got It?

    “…become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting, wonderful…”    – Roald Dahl Let me lay it out, and you see if I got it.   Your reading experiences in school focused on plot, and teacher generated questions.  Your classroom was a quiz show, a gauntlet that only the…