Best Way to Read a Book

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Best Way to Read a Book

Best way to read a book I know

Is get a lad of six or so,

And curl him up upon my knee

Deep in a big arm chair, where we

Can catch the warmth of blazing coals,

And then let two contented souls

Melt into one, old age and youth,

Sharing adventure's marvelous truth.

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I read a page, and then we sit

And talk it over, bit by bit;

Just how the pirates looked, and why

They flung a black flag to the sky.

We pass no paragraph without

First knowing what it's all about,

And when the author starts a fight

We join the forces that are right.

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We're deep in Treasure Island, and

From Spy Glass Hill we've viewed the land;

Through thickets dense we've followed Jim

And shared the doubts that came to him.

We've heard Cap. Smollett arguing there

With Long John Silver, gaunt and spare,

And mastering our many fears

We've battled with those buccaneers.

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Best way to read a book I've found

Is have a little boy around

And take him up upon your knee;

Then talk about the tale, till he

Lives it and feels it, just as you,

And shares the great adventure, too.

Books have a deep and lasting joy

For him who reads them to his boy.

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Yesterday was Edgar E. Guest's birthday and I intended to post this poem but before I got that far I was too tired to think straight — so I went to bed instead.

Even if I'm not a boy and we never read about pirates, this poem brings back so many sweet memories from the time my father read to me before tucking me in bed.