I remember that as a child my parents were constantly urging us to read. Read books, magazines, packaging, road signs, captions and cartoons, whatever. Anything with print was fair game. I was lucky because they were able to make reading a challenging game. Mom once said she would not be surprised if I read the inside of the toilet tissue roll. I replied, ‘but mom, there is nothing printed on the cardboard roll.’ She laughed, but you looked and would have. She was right. Now my job is to instill that reading curiosity into these kids.

As a teacher of, what our state calls, at risk teens, I face the problem of woefully unprepared students. Students to whom reading is a chore to be avoided at all costs. These students arrive in my eleventh grade classroom with only the basic reading skills of a fifth or sixth grader. Now I am faced with the same problem so many teachers encounter with the realization that their students simply cannot read and comprehend the materials that must be mastered. They simply don’t want to and will use any ploy to circumvent a teacher’s attempt at class oriented reading exercises. So,What can we do?

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If you are traveling to Ireland, then you will no doubt be aware of the rich literary tradition the country has. Almost everywhere you go there are references to Irish writers, such as James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. And even today, somehow the Irish seem to be able to tell a story better than just about anyone else – whether it be in written form, or just through a chat in the pub.

So, if a trip to The Emerald Isle is on the agenda, then it is almost compulsory to take some books set in Ireland to read on your travels. But what should you read if Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ is not quite your cup of tea? Here’s a range of novels that will take you the length and breadth of Ireland, and give you a real taste of life over the years in this country filled with passion and history.

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