"No reading at the breakfast table"

I was reading the paper yesterday and noticed that of the five books nominated for the Christina Stead prize (worth $40k!), I had read three of them fairly recently.  Out of those three, I loved one and was a bit disappointed with the other two. I really liked 'The Spare Room' by Helen Garner and read it in about a day after receiving it as a gift.  I just loved the way she wrote.  It the story of a woman who has an old friend come to stay with her for three weeks.  But the friend is dying of cancer and has come to stay while she tries an alternative cancer treatment.  It is terribly sad and so lacking in any hope.  As a Christian I'm so accustomed to speaking about death and the aftermath with hope.  And it was the lack of hope and the desperate attempts by the woman's friend to cling onto life that intrigued me.   The other two books nominated for the prize were  'Breath' by Tim Winton and 'The Lieutenant' by Kate Grenville.  I had been looking for

"No reading at the breakfast table - it's a new rule", I heard myself announce. Internally I was horrified - was this really me telling the kids to stop reading? Reading is a core business in the Kemp house. A great moment of parenting pride for 2008 was when Aidan won the school library award! We've loved seeing the older kids get the hang of reading for themselves. Even Abbie (2) was reading to the cat last week. But nothing was happening except reading and VERY slow eating. So to get out of the house in the mornings a sacrifice had to be made. We all feel sad still (no reading the paper at the table for me anymore) but we have been getting a lot more done in the mornings!