Reading AKA torture

You'd think I asked him to amputate his own limb. 

Dimitri is not a reader.  I wish he was, I truly think it makes school so much easier if you can really enjoy a good book-it makes the text books seem less torturous.  He is going into his Sophomore year in September and he has a summer reading requirement list.  Do you know how many books he has to read?  Are you ready?  It's brutal....two.  He has to read a minimum of two books over three months.  Isn't that horrible?!  I mean really?!  What are they thinking?!  Yes, I'm being sarcastic. 

Anyway, he has a list of books to pick from.  He has to pick one book from that list and the second book is free choice.  He decided to read The Lovely Bones-it's on the list.  Conveniently my Mother in Law had my Sister in Law's copy so I didn't have to check anything out or buy any books.  Last week he got slammed by an allergy/cold combo, it was brutal.  Grandma didn't have the heart to crack the reading whip, understandably so, he was downright pathetic!  This week however, the whip cracketh.  When I dropped him off today at Grandma's house I called him into the kitchen and laid out the expectations, no computer and no video games until his reading time (one hour) is done.  I know he says...yeah you know.  But if I weren't forcing the issue you'd happily procrastinate until oh say late August then freak out like you did last summer when we had to do a minimum pages per day of reading instead of time so you'd be done before school started!  My son is a master procrastinator.  I get it, I really do.  But man I wish that he would learn he is not doing himself any favors.

To be "fair" I then called Paulo in and handed him two books and told him, no video games until he's read each book out loud.  He grumbled, but then sat down on the couch to read the books to his new favorite person, Karla who is visiting from Mexico City.  What did Dimitri do?  Practice his golf shots...master procrastinator.