Woodworth, who now works in accounting, 1 says she's still not a very good reader and tears up when she talks about it. Molly Woodworth (left) with her aunt, Nora Chahbazi, outside the Ounce of Prevention Reading Center in Flushing, Michigan. Her reading strategies were her "dirty little secrets." No one knew how much she struggled, not even her parents. "I'd get through a chapter and my brain hurt by the end of it. "I hated reading because it was taxing," she said. Most of the time, she could get the gist of what she was reading. Strategy 3: If all else failed, she'd skip the words she didn't know. Reading was kind of like a game of 20 Questions: What word could this be? If she came across a word she didn't have in her visual memory bank, she'd look at the first letter and come up with a word that seemed to make sense. Strategy 2: Guess the words based on context. "Words were like pictures to me," she said. Strategy 1: Memorize as many words as possible. So she came up with her own strategies to get through text. She says sounds and letters just didn't make sense to her, and she doesn't remember anyone teaching her how to read. Woodworth went to public school in Owosso, Michigan, in the 1990s. "When a teacher would dictate a word and say, 'Tell me how you think you can spell it,' I sat there with my mouth open while other kids gave spellings, and I thought, 'How do they even know where to begin?' I was totally lost." "There was no rhyme or reason to reading for me," she said. Molly Woodworth was a kid who seemed to do well at everything: good grades, in the gifted and talented program. Here, at least, another world has always seemed possible.Listen to this audio documentary on the Educate podcast. Word Power has always felt like a place out of time, envisioning some future beyond utilitarianism and homogeneity, a hope embodied by the presence of the shop and the community that surrounds it. As Elaine’s statement on the Word Power site says, they well deserve the opportunity to hang up their ’bookselling boots and move on to pastures new’.Īll those who love what Word Power represents can only hope that a new owner can be found willing and able to carry on the traditions they have established. Running Word Power and its constellation of events has been a great labour of love for Elaine and Tarlochan for many years, a battle in a hostile marketplace that has overwhelmed so many independent booksellers. The devastating selection of books available at the Book Fair, presented on tables spanning the full length of the Blue Drill Hall in Dalmeny Street, must be budgeted for some weeks in advance. The shop also has a comprehensive online store that, rather unlike Amazon, greets the visitor with quotations from the likes of Erich Fromm, CLR James and Wilhelm Reich.īut excellent as their selection is, Word Power is as well known for events as for books, which have included countless book launches, discussion evenings, ‘Radical Burns Night Suppers’, and the annual Edinburgh Book Fringe and Independent Radical Book Fair, which over the years have attracted speakers such as Ali Smith, AJ Kennedy, Benjamin Zephaniah, George Monbiot, Owen Jones, Ken MacLeod, James Kelman, Janice Galloway, Richard Holloway, Lesley Riddoch and Ilan Pappe. I have stumbled across dozens of titles by small publishers – including Luath, Pluto, Verso, Haymarket, Zed, Zero, and Word Power’s own imprint – that have opened up previously unsuspected horizons of thought. Since opening the shop in 1994 owners Elaine Henry and Tarlochan Singh Gill have turned Word Power into a vital hub for independent political and creative thought.įor the book lover a trip to Word Power is alive with the possibility of the kind of chance discovery increasingly unavailable in high street chains. As the writer Dilys Rose has put it: ‘Word Power is more than a book shop, it’s a way of life.’ The reaction to this week’s news that Word Power is to close indicates I am not alone. There’s also an intriguing children’s section featuring titles such as A is for Activist and Tales for Little Rebels. And a minimum of half an hour is always required to allow for a thorough inspection of shelves and tables crammed with the best political analysis, literature, poetry, philosophy and travel writing. I cannot leave without at least one purchase. My favourite Scottish independent bookshop is also the one I have tried to visit least.įor me, a trip to Edinburgh’s Word Power Books is an expensive business, both in terms of money and time.
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