When Did Your Love of Reading Begin?

Bethany House Publishers recently ran a poll on Facebook, asking, “When did you first discover a love for reading?” An overwhelming 92% replied “From a young age” while only 8% chose, “Later in life.”

Those in the first category credited others with instilling their love of books at a young age, including: a pastor’s wife, local book mobile, libraries, siblings, grandparents, and, not surprisingly, parents.

My Dad reading to my sons when young.

The latter was true for me as well. My parents read books to my brothers and me and bought us books. Every Christmas afternoon would find us curled up somewhere around the house with the new books we’d been gifted. As a young girl, I LOVED the Trixie Belden series among others.

My husband reading to the boys.

My husband has always been a big reader as well. And he was so faithful about reading to our sons every night when they were young. Both sets of grandparents read to them as well. The boys were once big readers themselves but less and less as they grew into teenagers and beyond, perhaps due to smart phones and computer games. I hope the Proverb that says, Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it will apply to reading as well.