As
an expert in nonverbal communication, I would recommend the placement of books
all around the home. Placement that may communicate honor and respect for the books,
such as organized placement on shelves and placement that indicates easy
accessibility like low-level coffee tables, low-level side tables, and
low-level bookshelves for children.
It's also interesting that children will model their parent's nonverbal behavior. Children will also watch how their parents and older siblings hold and focus on their books, specifically, does it hold their undivided attention, do they stare intently at it, hold it close, curl their body around it, and other subtle nonverbal cues such as and if they carry a book with them when they leave the house, do they see their parents reading a book as they wait at the doctor's office, or they see that their parents read in bed before sleep, or after dinner in the living room instead of watching TV or in a cozy spot, or at the beach, etc, they are more likely to model that reading ritual.
For example, my dad studied a lot and had his textbooks that filled their shelves in the bedroom and also had a stack of steamy bestsellers on his bedside, and he had a subscription to several newspapers including the Wall Street Journal and many many magazines that where left on the coffee table, my parent's bed and side tables always available to read. I started reading the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Newsweek, and a host of other magazines and his potboiler novels when I was ten or so.
Now have bookshelves filled with textbooks and other books on my expertise
(nonverbal communication) in my house. I have over 1,000 books in my house! And
I always have novels stacked on my bedside table and books and magazines of all kinds on my coffee table.
