Igniting a Passion for Reading

My passion for teaching reading has just gone through the roof because I finished reading Steven Layne's Igniting a Passion for Reading.  I've always known that educators who are passionate about books will often inspire that same passion in their students.  Steven Layne knows that too, so his book is full of easy things that teachers and/or librarians could do to get kids excited about books by sharing their own enjoyment. 

Because all of his strategies are amazing, I'll have to narrow it down to a few that I found especially useful.  The "First Read Club" is a a way to get kids to read the new books in a library.  If a student reads a new book first, he or she gets to write his name on a sticker that goes inside the first cover.
"Status of the Class" allows kids and the teacher to quickly hear what is being read in the room.  Each student stands up and says the title, author, and page number of the book they are currently reading.  The reason I love this idea is that it's possible for a student to hear upwards of 20 new titles in a matter of minutes.  It's a great way for kids to build up their "to be read" list. 

There are ton of other ideas in Layne's book - both for individual classrooms and the entire school.  Any teacher could benefit from reading this book, but I think a staff book club would be even better.  Then, all the educators in the building could discuss how it would work in their room.