History repeats itself every day, or rather every time, in many homes at bedtime: children ask their parents to read them a story, the same story that they have been reading to them all week, the same story that they have heard more than twenty times and that the little ones already know by heart. That is what they like –the fact that they can repeat every line of dialog, even anticipate it.

History repeats itself every day, or rather every time, in many homes at bedtime: children ask their parents to read them a story, the same story that they have been reading to them all week, the same story that they have heard more than twenty times and that the little ones already know by heart. That is what they like –the fact that they can repeat every line of dialog, even anticipate it.

Sleep will conquer those children in the same way as dragons are conquered in those stories, and next time the same thing will probably happen all over again. Writer Vanesa Pérez Sauquillo highlights this everyday fact when talking about readers’ and book sales’ figures: “There are reading habits that are impossible to measure. Let’s say an author has sold only a single volume; every night, however, that same volume becomes a different one.”

Read more here (EL PAIS-CULTURA)