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My love of books started long before I could ever read. My parents would read to me every night. As I got older I began reading my sister's Trixie Beldon books. I've been hooked on books ever since.
Maybe this has been asked before but when did your love of reading start?
Growing up we spent the summer at a cottage on Lake Erie. It was in a tiny town called North East right on the border of PA and NY. We were right on the lake and it was so beautiful. In the summers my dad would not allow a TV. He called it "the one-eyed people eater" You were to be outside enjoying nature, riding your bike, swimming, collecting things, etc.
I remember the big event was going to the library each week to get your books. That started a wonderful lifetime of reading for me. I'm in my 60's now and my dad in his 90's.
When I vacation one of the first things I pack is my book bag of what I want to read that trip. I'm so very thankful for my parents giving me that love and joy of reading.....
I love this post, driftwoodpoint! We, too, had a cottage. It was on Lake Michigan and in the woods. We didn't have a tv out there, just an am radio, plenty of woods to run around in and build things, and tons of swimming and playing in Lake Michigan. We collected seaglass. My parents read alot, as did the kids. I absolutely love reading. Today, I'm like you. One of the first things I pack when packing for vacation are my books and magazines. It's the highlight of packing!
I grew up with my parents always retiring to the family room after dinner to read their novels. We had a huge bookcase that spanned one side of the family room so I grew up surrounded by books, and my parents role modeling reading all the time.
I think parents reading around their children alone makes a big difference for the children. It harvests a love of reading, learning and the ability to read copious amounts which is very important for many careers and educational institutions. I wonder what so many people in the USA would be like if their parents had spent 30 to 60 minutes a day reading with them instead of encouraging them to watch junk shows like American Idol and be couch potatoes.
True. I heard on the radio a report that the biggest correlation between success for a child in school is that the parents read to them nightly. This was a bigger correlation than even wealth.
I think this kind of time with a kid makes him feel loved and cherished, too, invaluable to all, but especially to the young. Maybe I should start reading to hubby before he drifts off to sleep, too.
I am an only child and my mom taught me to read and write before I entered school. She said, later, that if she could throw enough books at me I would stay put for hours reading and not bothering her.
I feel deep gratitude to my mom for doing this. My parents were sharecroppers, my dad worked on his father's farm when he was a kid and never finished grammar school. My mom never finished high school. I put myself through college nights while working days and got an MBA. Both my parents worked for as long as I can remember, and saved to purchase successively better homes. I think values and good habits of thinking and working will take a child far in life. I think many good things are set into play when a child is read to while very young.
My love of reading started because it was my main source of entertainment as a child. I was not allowed to watch much television during the schoolyear--only on Saturdays and Sundays after dinner. To stave off boredom, my father always encouraged me to read, when I wasn't doing homework. I was lonely a lot as a child, so books became my best friends.
My school also had a monthly book order club. My father and I would go through the order booklet and discuss with me which new books interested me. He, too, read a lot and enjoyed these discussions with me, and in the process informed my mind about what to look for in a good book. He never denied me any books. I could always order as many as I wanted. My friends, who were all avid readers, and I would order many books every month, and exchange them.
The elementary school that I attended dismissed at noon every Wednesday. On those days, a group of four or five of us would head off to the library immediately after school and spend the afternoon there eating lunch in the cafeteria, sitting in on story time, taking out armloads of books, and generally turning the children's section of the library into our second home! It was wonderful.
My love of books, libraries, bookstores, and learning has never waned.
It started young, I have older siblings so when they started reading so did I. I use to read the ingredients off of cereal boxes etc and get my parents to help to sound out the words. As I got older I started reading the box car children and sweet valley high then my reading progressed to Stephen King, John Grisham, James Patterson etc I also read the likes of Slyvia Plath and alot of the books that were banned at one point in time because of the language/content. Now I dont go a day without reading, reading is fun lol.
My gran used to read the funnies in the paper to me and got tired of it. She taught me to read them for myself when I was 3, so I've been reading for over 60 years now. I don't really remember not being able to read, never could. Books have always been my escape and my best friends.
Like most people here have already mentioned, parents are a huge influence on a child's reading appetite. Mine were no different: every three weeks, we'd go to the library and come back home with a busload of books and comics: 7 for my dad, 7 for my mom, 7 for my sister and 7 for me . I loved it then and I still love it now.
Libraries ah...for me they're today's true temples .
I read Nancy Drew and Beverly Grey and the Hardy Boys and Heidi and the Honey Bunch books and my very favorite was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. Eighty-Nine people on Amazon gave it a 4.5 rating out of five. It says it is a series but as a child, my library only had this one. If you know a kid (8-12) they would probably love this.
My mother was a teacher and she would take my sister and me to our lake house for the entire summer. Our dad would come up on the weekends. No TV, no phone - LOTS of books. Every Wednesday we would drive 30 miles into town to go to the library and my mom would use the phone there to call my dad (collect!). We would stock up on enough books to last for the week.
I was telling my children and husband about this and they couldn't believe that we didn't have a phone at the lake house. Thought it wasn't "safe".... We were there with my mother for goodness sake - how was that not safe?
I think by the end of my childhood I probably read almost every young person's book in that tiny rural library... Lovely memories.
I came to fiction late. I'd read a few novels before I got to college, but that was it, a few. Like a lot of guys, I was too busy getting in and out of trouble to sit still and read. Funny thing is, when I was in my 2nd year I worked as a plain clothes security guard in a library. As you might imagine there wasn't all that much for me to do, so I read. I read a lot, and I've yet to stop. I do find that the amount of time that I spend reading fluctuates though, depending on how hectic my life is at the time; or how distracted I am, which is really unfortunate because reading for me, is the best way I've found to organize my thoughts. When I need it most is when I seem to be least able to get to that place where I can give into a novel.
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You were to be outside enjoying nature, riding your bike, swimming, collecting things, etc.
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