Have you always loved reading?

[Ignacio]

How did you come to like reading? Were books always around when you were a little kid? While growing up there were never really many books to read. I'd read one of my sister's "Goosebumps" series books (I think that's what they were called?) now and then but I wasn't really into reading. It wasn't until after high school that I really began to read a whole lot more. Although today I like to read a bit of everything (including fiction once in a while), I mostly read non-fiction books that deal with business and technology.

What's your story?

[Phillip Reynolds]

Actually when I was in school, I was like my 11 year old daughter, I hated to read. Then in the seventh grade My English teacher Mrs. White (not the one from the game Clue) had us keep a list of the books we read. I have to say most of the books I wrote on that list I pretended to read.It wasn't till the summer of the eighth grade the following year I really started to read. Some of the kids were talking about Tolkien's Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings series, I just had to check it out. I fell in love with The Hobbit, in fact while reading The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings I was up every night till about 3 or 4 in the morning trying to finish them off.
While in High School two other things solidified my desire to read. The first was that my dad and I started to talk about the books we read. I would tell him what I read, then he would tell me what he read. The books he would tell me about I
would either borrow from him and read, or I would buy them from the bookstore and read.
The second thing that soldified my desire to read happened when I was a junior in High school. Strangely enough they offered a Speed Reading Course after school. My Dad thought it would be good for me to take and so I did. At first I didn't
like the course but by the time I finished the course I loved it. Now I average between about 160 to 200 pages a day.
On a good day I can read between 200 and 300 pages per day. All this from someone who at one time hate book and reading altogether. See with time and certain intervening factors, I think we all can change.

[Elizabeth]

I've always been a reader. I learned to write my name when I was three years old so I could get my OWN library card - mom's just wasn't good enough. Every summer, when other kids would be playing outside, I'd be in reading a book. My mom would yell at me, "Go outside! It's a beautiful day!", but all I wanted to do was stay home and read. In college, I could never study at the library, because I would spend all my time searching the stacks for more interesting books to read. I'm pretty sure I've been addicted my whole life!

[Bekkah]

I have ALWAYS loved to read. I still get excited when I think back to how much I loved the annual book fair when I was in elementary school. My mom is a HUGE reader (obviously where I get it from). I can remember finishing up a Sweet Valley High book, eons ago, and BEGGING my mother to take me to the store because I HAD to start the next in the series immediately. She just smiled and said 'hurry up, they're closing soon' and off we went. I have no idea if she remembers that or how much it STILL means to me. I'm hooked for life ;)

[Hagelrat]

I love to read, and yes I always have. It's tied up in my earliest memories of comfort. Mum used to read to me when I was young and she'd storm around the room delivering "The Lady of Shallot" and giving me chills. I remember her reading Black Beauty to me when I was in the bath (I hated taking baths) and us both crying over Ginger. I started reading as soon as I could and pushed to read older books, I remember reading with my dictionary next to me so I could check new words out. i loved my dad changing the story of peter rabbit so I could recite it back to him and I used to walk round the playground at junior school with my nose in a book. Now I read at lunch time from work, in the evenings at home and am rarely without a book in my handbag. If I am ill or unhappy I curl up under the duvet with a book.

[Anna Balasi]

I guess you can say I've always liked to read. There was a time, I think between 3 and 7 years old, when reading wasn't really my thing, because a) I just wanted to play outdoors all the time and then b) my mother, when I was 5, tried to get me into reading by making me read the storybooks I liked. Now, the latter activity wouldn't have been so bad if my mother weren't such a stern and sometimes impatient teacher. She was an AWFUL teacher in anything--no patience whatsoever, so you can imagine how reading was not a pleasurable experience for me those first few years, but even then, I always read road signs and those signs in public places. At the grocery, I would read news headlines and magazine covers. I looked at crossword puzzles and wondered how on earth grown-ups figured out the answers by the clues that meant nothing to me at the time. For years, I never figured out crossword puzzles, but I always sat down and looked at the blank boxes and unintelligible clues morning after morning. When I did decide to pick up a real book to read AND decided, with conviction to finish it, it was a Bobsey Twins novel--one of those longer, hardcover ones with the old-fashioned art. I can't even remember the title of the book, because when I checked it out of the library, I read it word for word, but didn't understand anything. I just read it and read it, until I read the last word and to me, I had finished a book. I checked out another Bobsey Twins novel and I did the same thing, I read it word for word with no comprehension. It was only when I realized that my grandmother had a library that I began to read for real. I began reading the encyclopedias in my grandmother's collection--I went from Volume A to XYZ. I began to read everything I could get my hands on, from classic novels to Readers' Digest. I haven't stopped reading and writing ever since.

[Ruthie @ Ruthie's Book Reviews]

I have always read. When I was really little, my grandmother used to read to me before bedtime, of course if she would try to hurry up and skip a few pages of the book, I'd tell her, 'That's not the way that goes, Grandma' LOL

Anyway, I love to read. Everyone bought me books to read for my birthday and Christmas. I still enjoy it and I think I always will. I'm even getting my little ones into it!!!

[Jessica]

Like most of the previous responses, I have loved to read for as long as I can remember. Both my parents are big readers, and there were always books all over the house. My mom read to us when we were little, and I remember the only times I stayed up past my bedtime was reading. (What a nerd! :P) Reading has long been my escape of choice, which is probably why I like to read fantasy so much.

[Janelle]

I've always loved reading. My mom read to us a lot when we were really young, and I would also see her reading her own books every so often. She subscribed to the Weekly Reader club, so we had a lot of books around. She was my inspiration. I've never stopped.

[Bobbie Crawford-McCoy]

Yes indeed, ever since I was old enough to hold a book! :-)
Reading allowed me to escape into amazing new worlds and fed my over-active imagination.
I LOVE books!


-Bobbie

Book Reviews By Bobbie
http://bookreviewsbybobbie.wordpress.com/

[Rachel]

I have always loved to read. When I was very little, I would read to my younger siblings when they were in the crib still - and before I could really actually read. Every book I could get my hands on in the house, I'd pick up and read.

However, it wasn't until my freshman English class that I truly began to appreciate the many worlds you could travel to in books. I had this magnificent teacher - Mrs. Trew - who was about 5 feet tall. She'd get up on her desk and read Shakespeare to us, as the plays would go on and she'd change her voice for each different part, she'd continue walking on her desk and then the tables and small book shelves in the room. I couldn't get enough after that. The next year, I had another phenomenal English Lit teacher who taught us how to figure out the meaning of a story, and see the historical value in literature. PS. This teacher actually ended up being one of my college Lit teachers - she was just as amazing then as she was in high school.

I don't think I've been without a book for any one day since freshman year.

[Bermudaonion]

Oh yes, I've always loved to read. My sister is older than I am and during the summer I would read her books from school. A lot of my fondest childhood memories are about books and reading.

[Antonette]

I was an only child for ten years before my brother came along, and we lived out in the country where I was far from my classmates. So my books were my playmates. My aunt and my grandmother were constantly bringing me books. I had a hardbound set of classics like Little Women, Robinson Caruso, Heidi, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates etc. that I reread all the time.
My grandmother bought me Anne of Green Gables, and Emily of New Moon, and I got hooked on those. I can remember pouring over the Scholastic book forms that came home from school ever month.
Our school Librarian always recommended awesome books for me to read. ironically, I now work at a bookstore with her, and now I recommend titles for her to read as well. lol

My late grandfather taught me to read when I was five. He;s sit down with me at the kitchen table and read the comics from the paper. I learned to read Charlie Brown and Mary Worth. I guess that started it all. That and my mom read me to sleep every night.


Last night, I was at a meeting for my Mom's group. I brought in a guest speaker from the local library to talk about children's programs at the library, and popular books for kids. She brought in a whole stack of books, and I went to take a peek. I overheard one of my friends laugh and say, "There she goes, our little book whore." I've been called lots of things, but that's the best.