“You are what you read.” (From “You’ve got mail”)

I was reading a book. Don’t I always read something? It was”1-2-3 Magic. Effective Discipline for Children 2-12″ by Thomas W. Phelan. Where? In a gymnastics facility (oh, boy, don’t I love this word “facility”, but I cannot come up with a better one for now). So a little boy (age 4 or 5) asked me whether it was a chapter book. I did not quite understand what he meant. Chapters, what Chapters? Children tend to take things literally. So do we, by the way. So I linked the word immediately to the Chapters store. It is a store, a bookstore, at least here in Canada, where I live. It was not what the boy meant. He meant a book with chapters containing mostly text and only a few pictures.

It was a bit funny. Yes, it was a chapter book and, yes, I bought it in Chapters. There must be a reason for calling a bookstore “Chapters”, don’t you think? And, by the way, Chapters is my favourite store because I love books. I always did. To read. Now I am trying to write. And I am trying to have fun by taking things literally. Because it is so much fun. It is simply a game. A word game. A mind game. And our minds need more exercise. “Chapters” is asking us to “get smarter”. So, why don’t we?