I Read

The Sun's Melody Holmes chats with outgoing Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke about reading and what it meant to him as a boy, a young man and a father. In this interview, Schmoke reveals that his early favorites were biographies -- about politicians!Did you have a favorite place for reading? "The little chair in my bedroom."Did you have a favorite character? "I liked Dr. Seuss. I love reading `Green Eggs and Ham' to kids."Was it hard for you to learn to read? "It took a while. Up until college, I thought I was a relatively slow reader."

Kristina M. Johnson is provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the Johns Hopkins University. Johnson received her doctorate in electrical engineering at Stanford University and has served in a number of academic and administrative positions at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; the University of Colorado and Duke University. Johnson found these books personally appealing for a variety of reasons: "The Great Hunger in Ireland" / by Cecil Blanche Fitzgerald Woodham-Smith / Penguin Group / $17 I read this as part of an Anglo-Irish course booklist I read while teaching at Trinity College, Dublin.

Gary Gait, of the Baltimore Thunder of the National Lacrosse League, talks to The Sun about "sticking" to reading.Do you remember the first book you read?In the first grade I remember reading "See Spot Run" and "Cat in the Hat.Did someone read to you when you were little?My mother did; bedtime stories and that sort of thing.Did you have afavorite place for reading?As a kid the only place to get any reading done was in my room.Was there a series of books you liked as a young reader?Among my favorites were any books about detectives.

"I read the book Go Dog. Go! by P. D. Eastman. I liked it best when they had a party on a tree. P.D. Eastman is my favorite author." -- Victoria Lynn vanDommelen Charlesmont Elementary "Would you eat fried worms? That is what Billy had to do in the book How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell. Billy makes a $50 bet with Alan that he can eat 15 worms in 15 days. Billy tries many different things to help himself eat the worms, like adding mustard, ketchup and peanut butter on top. Billy wanted the $50 so he could buy a mini-bike.

"Joan of Arc by Josephine Poole is an awesome book with greatly detailed pictures -- especially the armor and horses. It also contains very descriptive text. At one point in the book, the light is described as bright and clear. When it goes away, the author writes: 'The heavenly light paled to sunshine.' At the back of the book, there is a list of chronological events. This well-written book will remain in your memory for years to come." -- Katy Rennenkampf Jeffers Hill Elementary "I read Camp Knock Knock by Betsy Duffey.

Student achiever: Euisun Chung, 10. School: Bryant Woods Elementary School. Special achievement: Winning millennium reading project at school. Read more than 4,000 minutes. What he says about it: "I was happy because I have only been here from Korea for one and one-half years. "At first, I had to learn English and could only read baby books. Now I love to read lots of books. The first book I read for the contest was my favorite. It is `Enormous Egg.' " Other interests: "Not sports -- I hate them.

"You might think that I live, eat and sleep baseball, and there's a lot of truth to that, but I also love reading. I read sports books, of course, but I also enjoy a good mystery or novel, history or other nonfiction, and lately even philosophy."I especially love sharing books with my children. By reading to them, I'm able to show them how important -- and fun -- reading is. To find out for yourself, try opening a book. It's . . . "The Only Way I Know."-- Cal Ripken Jr., Oriole third-baseman and author of "The Only Way I Know"Pub Date: 06/20/99

I just finished "Fighting for Time," by Glen Worthington about the Civil War battle of Monocacy Juction. My great-grandfather was killed in that battle; that's why I looked at it - it was most interesting. ... And I read this thing "Primary Colors," (by Anonymous)I think it's terrific. I hate Clinton. The book exposes them - they're a disgrace. I'm not much interested in the author situation, but it was written by a journalist from the inside. It was enlightening.- Paul F. Harris Sr. is a Glen Burnie attorney who wrote and published "Babe Ruth: The Dark Side" earlier this year.

... mainly non fiction. Because I'm in the new stages of a novel of my own, I try to stay away from strong literary voices and stick to non fiction. I just fininshed John Mcphee's "Looking for a Ship" and Paul Theroux's "Old Patagonian Express."I've been reading a lot of science magazines, Scientific American. I read them as a source for metaphors. The new fiction I'm very interested in reading and haven't read are John Updike's "In the Beauty of the Lilies" and Philip Roth's "Sabbath's Theater."

Portraits 9 / 11 / 01: The Collected "Portraits of Grief" from The New York Times, foreword by Howell Raines and introduction by Janny Scott (Times Books, 688 pages, $30). The last publication in which most readers would have expected to find an exquisiteness of microjournalism is The Times. Yet day after day from shortly after the World Trade Center horror for 14 weeks and then episodically afterward, there were one or two full pages of tiny pieces about victims. For some people I know, the miniature obituaries became a compulsion -- they literally could not get through the day without reading some or all of them.