Journey of a Lifetime: Wayne Mergler

In "Journey of a Lifetime," writer Juanita Havill describes the different approaches her parents had towards reading:

[My father read] ‘the local and tri-state newspapers, the Wall Street Journal, and mysteries. He didn't care which mystery he read, and because he forgot them immediately after finishing, he could read the same mystery again and again. My father read to fall asleep.

My mother read as if her life depended upon it. Sitting on the living room sofa behind the coffee table piled high with library books, she would open a book and disappear. She didn't fidget or nibble snacks or look up. While reading, she had an expression of calm, transported by the story to another place. One day I saw her sitting at a table bent over a book with her elbows firmly planted. She was frozen, motionless except to turn the pages. I walked by her again several hours later. She closed the 350-page book, looked up, and said, "That was a great book!"'