The Tale of the Woeful Reader: A True Story

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in the deep, dark forest where the wildcats roamed. Every day, she bounced happily into her wagon so her father could take her to school in the nearby countryside. She loved school, and always tried hard for the sake of trying. She loved learning as much as she could about far-off kingdoms and beasts great and small. Before she was old enough to go to school, she loved it when she would bundle in blankets by the fire and her mother and father would read to her. She simply couldn't wait until she was old enough for school where she would get to read all by herself. For she knew at school there would be a whole library full of books, and whole hours of class devoted to spending time in that library. Oh the anticipation!

Finally the time had come to be at the country school where her library time could begin in earnest. She cursed her fellow little girls and boys for moving so slowly on their way down into the cellar, where the books lived, and bumped into them in her haste as she neared the warm glow of the lanterns on the colorful bookshelves. To her the library was magical, with its winding stacks of knowledge and fantasies, its magnificent maps and paintings on the walls, and wise Mrs. Lockwood, the keeper of the books. The little girl spent hours dwarfed in a too-large chair, learning words she'd never imagined and weaving together elaborate tales of adventure with each page. Mrs. Lockwood even showed her the wonders of the great books of ancient knowledge where she could read about powerful emperors and cities of yore. When the school year ended, she could hardly wait for summer to fly by so she could come back to the library the following year. 

And so it was that the autumn came and the next school year began. But unbeknownst to the little girl, a strange thing was to begin in the library this year. The library contained a market, full of sparkling treasures, that the little girl had always seen but never been allowed inside. This year, on her first visit to the library, Mrs. Lockwood told her that she have special privileges this year in the library. The little girl would get to visit the special market, if she would only continue to read the books she loved and share their stories with Mrs. Lockwood. With each picture book she read and shared, she would be given one silver coin. When she got better at reading and could read bigger chapter books, she would receive a whole gold coin! The little girl couldn't believe it! She could collect coins for the reading she would have done anyway, and use it to buy gifts for her darling mother and father. They worked so hard and were so kind to her--she loved them so, and as she had no brothers or sisters, she wanted to do everything she could to make them happy. She quickly earned several silver coins for her reading, and brought home a golden treasure box, a jeweled necklace, and a wooden game for her mother and father.

But a strange thing happened as the years went on. The little girl got better and better at reading, make no mistake. She earned many gold coins for reading long, difficult books. But she stopped hurrying to the library, and stopped feeling its magic beckon. In her free time after school she began to rush through her books, no matter how captivating the story, so she could move on to doing other things. She found herself even bored while at the library, especially when she was waiting her turn to share a story with Mrs. Lockwood. Her last year at the school, she only bothered to read a few books.

And then the little girl grew up. She still loves tales of adventure and seeking out new knowledge, but she does not look to books for these. Instead reading is the last thing she instinctively wants to do to learn or experience something. She would rather learn and be entertained by talking and working with others, through watching motion pictures, or simply by jumping in and doing things. She has continued to go to school to seek higher learning, and reads a great deal for her increasingly difficult classes. However, she dreads this reading and only reads when a teacher tells her to, with grades and the promise of a degree having replaced Mrs. Lockwood's gold and silver incentives. In fact, in the whole rest of her life combined she has never read as many books as she did in that first year at the country school, before the gold and silver coins entered her life. Since she left the country school, she has only actually finished a handful of books, ever, for the pure enjoyment of it. This makes her sad, because she remembers that little girl who loved books and longed to soak them in over long hours by the fire. However, she is now ruined and has to fight to swallow what she reads. Today, as she writes this tale, she realizes that it must have been the gold and silver coins that spoiled her love for reading. Although Mrs. Lockwood meant no harm, the little girl fell prey to the justification effect, and, without even realizing it, attributed her motivation for reading to the wealth and gifts it brought her from the library market. To this day, without that extrinsic motivation, she finds her motivation for reading as barren as the dark lands she once read about in those fairytales of yore.

Is there any way for that little girl to return and read happily ever after?