What we’re reading

I intend this post as a snapshot in time of the Rising Family’s current reading habits.

We’ve acclimated to our living space in Yokohama but it has affected our reading diet. To wit, Lady E. and M. have reintegrated with the Japanese school system and local media. For them, that means English is now more chore than a necessity or escape. Yours truly thus issued coercive parental diktats for the greater good of their bilingual future. And they’ve grudgingly accepted a light English reading regimen. Their mission is to read a reasonable amount of their chosen book every week, then offer up a short written summary. If they do the work, good things happen; if they skive, bad things happen. My carrot and stick approach links their monthly allowance and access to social media as the levers to comply with my demand for weekly language maintenance.

So far, so good—it’s paying off for them. My half of the bargain is that I, too, read their books, and we discuss the chapters they cover and their written recap. We’ve been following this menu for several months now. The daughters realize it isn’t a flavor-of-the-month parenting fad and I mean to see it through long term. There is the understanding this isn’t going away...

What are they reading, you ask?

Mandatory reading

Lady E. started reading Rob Aspinal’s “Truly Deadly”, about a supercharged teenage girl action hero. It was a legacy project from Elena’s pandemic stay-at-home reading list while in the States, but she lost interest. So we switched to J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,” which has proved more easily digestible. The only problem we’ve had is pronouncing ‘Hermione’.

Marina quickly inhaled “The Wild Robot” by Peter Brown due to her growing interest in animals. The plot revolves around a robot named Roz and her adventures on an island filled only with animals. M. is currently reading the sequel, “The Wild Robot Escapes,” wherein we see Roz working on a family farm and plotting her return to the island to reunite with her adopted bird son, Brightbill. Both books have a heartwarming and thoughtful plot.

Voluntary reading

Elena is into Japanese manga comics, and has purchased the “Tokyo Ghoul” series of bound comic books by Sei Ishida. It’s all the rage in the under-15 set in Japan.

Marina is reading the Roald Dahl storybook set she received as a Christmas present last year.

As usual, Naomi prefers to leave as few digital crumbs as possible and wishes to keep her reading choices private.

And me? I’m navigating a minor case of homesickness. I quickly read “The Never-Ending Present” by Michael Barclay, an interesting history of Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip. I’ve since  shared it with other Canuck GenXers here in Nippon pining for lost youth. Then I moved on to “Music is the Drug,” a biography of the Cowboy Junkies, another Canadian band. (Nice Christmas gift Dad and Bro!)

To celebrate my stint in the U.S., I’m reading the New Yorker maven and baseball storyteller, Roger Angell, at the same time as snacking on gonzo journalism from Hunter S. Thompson. 

I can’t figure out why I’m doing this or what it signifies. I’m just following my urges, I suppose, or showing my own ambivalence about leaving the U.S. and returning to live in Japan. It’s been a greater subconscious challenge than I expected.

But it’s all damn good writing!