"Shimrod, thanks! I will check out Mr. Williams and his new release on your recommendation. I'm holding you personally responsible!"

Oh dear! Well, I hope that WJW's new book is as good as I hope it's going to be. I don't get excited about much, these days, but looking forward to WJW's latest book is, for me, feels a bit like looking forward to Xmas when I was a child. I can think of no higher recommendation!

Oh yes, I could never get on with 'Janet and John' (presumably the UK equivalent of the US 'Dick and Jane'?) books either. When I was at what we called "Infants' school" (up to age 7) we ploughed relentlessly through these stupid (colour-coded) tomes. I'm not sure, at this remove, what it was that I didn't 'get' about them but my mother was told that I was a poor reader. I then remember that at "Junior school" (7 - 11) the first book that I was supplied with was about circuses. It was mostly print with a few black and white photographs (a much higher ratio of print/pictures) and I found that I could read it perfectly well. In another couple of months my mother was being told that I had the reading age of an 11 year old. A couple of years after that I was reading great chunks out of our local library.

An article that I was reading in today's newspaper suggests that modern methods of teaching kids to read may be even more stupid (at least in the UK) ... ?