As National Family Literacy Month draws to a close, I wanted to share some final thoughts about reading together as a family. In previous posts, I have talked about tips for starting a family book club, given ideas for books to read in your family book club, and suggested others games and activities you can add to enhance your reading.

I once asked Gore Vidal, one of my favorite writers, what advice he would give to children who are growing up right now. To the best of my memory, this is part of what he said, “Read, read, read, and don’t worry too much what others say about you.”

Vidal’s words have stuck with me over the years, and I like to think they apply to more than just reading books. Cultivating a love of reading, for me, means you read everything you can get your hands on—fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, magazine articles, comics, graphic novels, poetry, cereal boxes and more. Except for the cereal boxes, I encourage you to incorporate all kinds of reading into your family’s routine, be it for a book club or other everyday activities.

Literacy in general applies to more than just reading for fun, but reading for fun helps contribute to overall literacy. And overall literacy has been connected to everything from success in school for students to success in life for adults. You can continue to find ideas for promoting literacy by visiting the blog for the National Center for Family Literacy.