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My mother taught me to read before I was in kindergarten. Then, when I was about 9, I'd read my way through the children's library and my mother had to co-sign with a specific librarian for an adult library card for me.
My father used to read to me every night when I was a child. I had a nice assortment of Dr. Seuss books, the long ones like If I Ran the Circus and Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, and collections like Yertle the Turtle and The Sneetches. My favorite was, and still is, On Beyond Zebra. With worlds like that waiting to be discovered, resistance was futile.
My Third Grade Teacher Sister Anne and the wonderful world of "Scholastic Reading Cards". I'm not sure that is the name of them however, they were laminated cards with short stories on them and questions to answer after you read each card.
Different color cards were for different levels of reading and there were numerous boxes filled with different color cards.
I could barely stand the wait until I could get to the next colored card and the next box.
I was also reading before kindergarten. Both of my parents were big readers (and my father taught ESL.) A very early memory is getting a flashlight out of the kitchen drawer and reading under the covers when I was supposed to be sleeping. From an early age, libraries and bookstores were favourite haunts.
I'm 55 and I've never stopped, I guess. Books have always been central to my life; every room in my house has books. You're never bored if you can read!
I just remember liking a good book for as long as I can remember. I was the only kid in my kindergarten class who could actually read. I actually enjoyed the reading assignments in English class. I go through spirts now that life is crazy. I'll go for almost a year without really reading anything, like I can't concentrate enough on a book. Then, I get into it again. I do love to read, but sometimes I feel like it consumes me-like I don't want to do anything BUT read, and I turn into a book zombie
What got me into reading? A junior high school librarian whose patience I had pushed to the limits.
I was never much of a reader as a child, always out and about getting into trouble and too busy to sit down with a "boring old book." When I hit 7th grade, one of my classes involved quite a bit of study time in the school library. In typical good kid with a bad side fashion, I would finish my work as quickly as possible and spend the rest of the time socializing with my classmates.
Finally, the librarian got tired of reminding me that we were in a library where silence was expected and pulled me off to the side one day. After figuring out that I wasn't much of a reader, she started asking me about other interests such as hobbies and movies that I liked. Since I still had a hold-over interest in cowboys and indians type entertainment, she introduced me to Louis L'Amour and his series about The Sacketts. I devoured the first book that night, and was back in the library first thing the following morning to get more. From that point on, my love of reading was established. I soon moved on to other western authors such as Max Brand, Zane Grey, Larry McMurtry and others. Eventually (didn't take long) I had worked my way through the western section of our small school library and moved on to other genres.
I now typically have an average of three books going at any one time; normally one fiction novel, one history book and one "tech" book. To this day I couldn't tell you the name of that librarian, but on occasion I still stop and remember her fondly for introducing me to the wonderful worlds that can be found written on paper.
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