Reading Role Models

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Did you discover the joys of reading all on your own, or did somebody influence you? Was it a parent who read to you? Another family member who reads a lot? A teacher who inspired you? A friend who shared the love for the printed page?

Drop by and share your stories of special individuals who influenced you and helped turned you into the avid reader you are now.

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

My mother, who was a first grade teacher, taught me how to read. She would read to me almost every night. However, she was not a major reader, but she did introduce me to the wonders of reading.

On the other hand, I have an older (by 10 years) female cousin, who lives a house away from us, who is a reader. I cut my literary teeth on her Mills&Boon collection and her bestseller books (Robert Ludlum, Sidney Sheldon, Harold Robbins, etc). By lending me her books, books that were considered above my age, I became a reading addict just like her.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ]

Quite honestly, I was the only reader in the family. I don't remember a teacher influencing my reading either. It was just something I picked up and wanted to do. I was a rather quiet child. I also started cross stitching just because I thought it would be fun. I saw a small kit in a store close to home and bought it with my own money. I taught myself with the instructions that came with the kit. My brother boasted of never reading a book that wasn't required by school all the way through college (although as an adult I think he's read a few). My mother only reads religious books. After retirement, my father started reading Harlequin romances. We trade. :)

[Jackie M]

My mother read a lot of Harlequin books when I was a kid and I blame her for my reading addiction! When I was a teenager she would let me read her books when she was done with them.

[Karyn]

My dad used to read to me when I was litle but as soon as I could read I just read myself. My mother is one of those exceptionally odd people who buys books but she never reads. She says she's going to but ends up playing golf instead. Dad doesn't read either but it's more to do with him being unable to be still. Ever. He's a farmer and seems to think he should be working and if he's not working then he's thinking about what work she could be doing at the moment and usually ends up getting up and going outside to 'just check' something that probably doesn't need checking in the first place. My brother has read Harry Potter 1 - 6 but still hasn't got around to reading 7. My partner wasn't a big reader until he met me. Now he reads.
My grandfather used to read, mostly short stories and classics, so I think my love of reading probably came from him. He spent hours when I was litle teaching me to read, bits of history and for some odd reason algebra.

[Arch]

As long as I can remember. I always loved to read, since I was a little girl.

[Yz the Whyz, Moderator]

Arch,

Did you just discover that love for reading on your own, or was there another person who influenced that love?

[Arch]

Yz wrote: "Arch,

Did you just discover that love for reading on your own, or was there another person who influenced that love?"


On my own.

[Wendy]

I've read for as long as I can remember. I, like Briansgirl, was the only reader in my household. My dad read, but my parents split when I was young. My mother never read a book in her life until she studied to be a counsellor in her 50's!!! I don't remember anyone encounraging me to read, just the opposite, my brothers were forever teasing me and my mum was always telling me 'to get my nose out of that book! I more or less read to escape home life and fell in love with the fantasy of a happy-ever-after.

[Kasia]

LibraryLass wrote: "... but my parents split when I was young..."

So sorry! These things are hard on kids :/
And I'm right there with you (divorce aside), reading is an escape for me too, always has been.

[Wendy]

I told my hubby just last night that he is actually lucky that I read so much, cos if I didn't I would actually be nagging at him about all the time he spends away from home! He works shifts, goes to church & church groups (I don't), volunteers to visit prisoners, plays squash (a LOT) etc. etc. So he should thank his lucky stars I can occupy myself with my books ;)

[Kasia]

LibraryLass wrote: "I told my hubby just last night that he is actually lucky that I read so much, cos if I didn't I would actually be nagging at him about all the time he spends away from home!..."

LOL, that's funny!!! And I find the volunteering to visit prisoners fascinating...

[Wendy]

He does it as part of the church's outreach programme. They have to get special permission, so they go about once a month (if hubby's shifts allow him he goes every time) and they play music and pray for the men if they want. It is not preachy just visiting and spending time with the men and finding out if any of the families need anything. I am very proud of what he does... no women allowed as it's a mens prison. My Mum counsels prisoners 3 days a week tho, as part of her A & D programme.

(edited for whoopsee mistakes)

[Kasia]

That's so great, I would have been proud as well! And I'm sure it feels good too, to be able to help... Prisons are such a sad places.

[Wendy]

Yeah they are, scary too at times. Glad to have you back Kasia.

[Holly]

My grandmother was a big reading enabler for me growing up. She also set me up with Harlequin when I was younger and I even remember my first two Harlequin books. It was Gerrity's Bride by Carolyn Davidson and Maiden Bride by Deborah Simmons.

[Annie]

My mother always read - she still has (some) of the Anne of Green Gables books she was given as presents as a pre & teen. One book for Christmas, and one for her birthday - unfortunately, her birthday is on 28 December, so she'd read her Christmas present book in less than 3 days, ready for the next one, then have nearly a year to wait for the next installment.
Her whole life, she has prefered reading to housework - a habit I picked up (types she, ignoring the dishes... hey, I live alone & the cat doesn't care!). Classic teen moments of shoving her stuff under the bed/into the wardrobe - while reading...
Her mother said 'I hope you have a daughter just like you!' - so my mother had four of them! And a son just as bad, when he really picked up reading in his early 20s.
My oldest sister moved back home in the mid-80s and I inherited her Harlequin collection, having read them all.
Even then, some of them were somewhat tame to what I'd already read at 13/14... good ol' Jackie Collins & Beatrice Small! Thanks Mum!
Oh... and Georgette Heyer for life! Barbara Cartland was a fleeting affair, when no Heyers were around to read. I've stolen my mother's Heyer collection, and added to it over the years.
Earlier than that - I remember my mother buying me a withdrawn copy of A Lion in the Meadow at Te Atatu South library (now closed) when I was about 4 - I still have that copy.
I remember my 2nd-oldest sister reading me The Monster at the End of this Book - and terrifying the hell out of me! Every single time I made her read it - she enjoyed it, the sadist! Hah! Now she has a vandalised copy of a pop-up book by Rod Campbell thanks to her traumatised 4th child.
As to my father - nope. Hardly ever read - but I do read /have read the sort of books he did read (but I never caught him...) - World War II escape stories & spy stories - all true ones, of course. Barry Crump books - they're almost like real life (Kiwis will know what I mean). And the occasional sports biography - but maybe that's because we kept buying them as Father's Day present, for lack of any other ideas!
Will crawl back into my hole, and stop commenting for a while now...

[Purple]

I found my first book by Violet Winspear hidden in my mom's room. I remember accompanying her to a private book library of someone with hideous make up. She would pick about five books and pay the woman. She takes me with her when she returns them too. I think she knows that I would be the only one in the family who would take after her love of reading. My late Dad likes to read too. Mostly about Engineering and Sports like Chess books. He introduced them to me when he realized that I'm starting to read moms romance books. I like the actual games and sports better more than reading them and I told him so. So we alternate reading and playing the strategies of Chess. My mom, by the way, is a Chemistry Teacher in High School.

[Mel W]

For as long as I can remember I've always loved to read. I don't recall any one particular person encouraging me to though. I, too, was probably the only consistent reader in my households during my childhood years. I was very shy, my parents divorced when my brother and I were very young, and my stepmother was a bit of a ranter so I would spend a lot of time holed up in my room or somewhere quiet outside with a book and escape from the real world :)

I've always encouraged my children to read, story before bed was a ritual when they were little, and books were, and still are, a big part of birthday and Christmas presents. Still, I'm probably the most prolific reader in our household with my son and daughter close behind, and lately I've noticed my husband picking up a book rather than the newspaper or business magazines that were his usual weekend fare :)