21st Century Literature discussion
Question of the Week
>
Has There Been A Father Figure Influence On Your Reading? (6/16/24)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Marc
(new)
Jun 16, 2024 01:46PM
Mod
reply
|
flag
My dad was a reader. He would take me and my sister to the local library every week or two. We would all take out as many books as allowed and often all the books checked out would be read by all of us. My dad chose historical fiction and thrillers, my sister loved Agatha Christie, and I focused a lot on science fiction, so we had good variety!
LindaJ^ wrote: "My dad was a reader. He would take me and my sister to the local library every week or two. We would all take out as many books as allowed and often all the books checked out would be read by all o..."How wonderful LindaP!
That's a great experience Linda! My father is a reader too and always had a book he was reading at many of our family outings growing up like barbeques or birthday parties, etc. He would be sitting in the back at a table glued to a book and I think this influenced some of us in the family (my older sister and I particularly) to be bookworms and read all the time too. These days he doesn't have very good eye sight, but he luckily had Audible so he still listens to his favorite books and podcasts, etc.
Same here, my father stuffed the whole house full with books, until my mother introduced the one-in-one-out rule (which he tries to creatively circumvent). I am very grateful to him for giving me the right books at the right time.
For me, there has been a continuum of role models, male & female, that have facilitated & guided my reading throughout my literate life. From primary school teachers who loaned me their own books, librarians who let me have an adult ticket years early - carefully monitoring my choices, through to A-level & university tutors. Each has gone above & beyond their professional role in their encouragement & support. I have gained enormously from every one of them. Not all seeds have taken root - sorry Mr Davis, I still can’t ‘get’ sci-fi - but they have all expanded both the breadth of my reading & the myriad ways in which it enriches my life.
LindaJ^ wrote: "My dad was a reader. He would take me and my sister to the local library every week or two. We would all take out as many books as allowed and often all the books checked out would be read by all o..."That’s lovely. Sharing books is an excellent way to explore what you like & another bond between you all. I imagine some books take you right back to that time.
Lovely thread. My dad is also a reader, and every year he gives me books for birthday and Christmas (chosen by him from a pre-approved longlist, as my taste has gotten rather more specific).I enjoy lending him books too. Most recently we both read Siblings and not long ago, Stalingrad and Milkman. Apparently my love of hardcore literature and his interest in 20th century conflicts have a meeting place. :-) But he's open-minded, I also got him to read a book about fairies, Among Others
What a great question!The first 'father figure' was my mother - she read to me every single night until I became a proficient reader, then she always took us to the library and enrolled us in library classes, while she would wait in the adult section reading. One vivid memory I have is when on one of these visits she pulled a book out of her handbag and said 'I borrowed this, I think you'll like it'.
That book was Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - I loved it!
Later on when I was hitting my teens she pulled a similar stunt, this time with Camus' The Outsider and Somerset Maughn's The Hairless Mexican.
Unfortunately everything else from then on didn't work for me as she was heavily invested in The Classics.
Weirdly the one time my dad (who only reads Clive Cussler, Wilbur Smith etc) recommended a book I liked was My Family and Other Animals and during the summer of 92 I read everything by him (and they were readily available as there were seven bookshops in Valletta - now they all closed down and a chain opened instead)
When I started Uni in fall of 1998, I befriended the librarian over there and he was a treasure trove of contemporary literary fic.
Now Goodreads and some Instagram e-friends are the source of my reading tastes. To be honest my subscriptions provide me with lit I like and the International and Anglo Booker + Goldsmiths prize lists help too.
This is such a lovely family story, Bob! ❤Robert wrote: "(...) One vivid memory I have is when on these visit she pulled a book out of her handbag and said 'I borrowed this, I think you'll like it'.
That book was Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - I loved it!(...)"
Ness wrote: "This is such a lovely family story, Bob! ❤Robert wrote: "(...) One vivid memory I have is when on these visit she pulled a book out of her handbag and said 'I borrowed this, I think you'll like i..."
Awww thanks
No one in my family was a reader except for me but my dad LOVED going into bookstores and walking around in them and then would buy me any book I wanted. For real he could not pass a bookstore without going inside and walking around with a smile on his face. (Thanks, Dad!)
What a beautiful thread! My dad and I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy together (in parallel) when I was in middle school/early high school - I think he was discovering it himself and we read things as diverse as Anne Mcaffrey and Robert Heinlein and Hitchhiker’s Guide - quietly enjoying the duality of our interest in a big family with lots of competing attentions. Lost my dad 10 years ago and hadn’t thought about this in a long time - but I would have lent him three body problem if he hadn’t lent it to me first!
My dad is a huge bibliophile, although our interests diverge quite a bit. Growing up he would always gift me books that I asked for but also that he thought would be a good challenge for me (don't think I was quite ready for War and Peace in 9th grade, but I still have that copy with his inscription inside). One of my favorite memories is from when I was living on the Aran Islands about 25 years ago and he shipped me a big box full of books from the US which he had picked out for me, which must have cost him a good sum. Guess that would never happen now that e-books are ubiquitous!
I suppose he's been the most influential to me in terms of just being highly literate. He's won me over on one of his favorite authors though, Donald Harington. I still hope to read the collected novels of Walker Percy he gave me one year.
I love sharing this pic from one corner of his house. This is the kind of surroundings I grew up in. The towers have only gotten higher and more precarious since this was taken.
https://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/...
I was the only reader in my family growing up, but I love these stories of family buddy reading books together! I think maybe I have been an influence on my nephew, and now we read some of the same books together, which is wonderful! But my parents and siblings weren't/aren't readers.
What a great question, Marc, and I'm so enjoying these stories.My dad was a reader, and I grew up with lots of books in the house. Unlike me, he liked westerns and mysteries and books about business that I later realized he used to teach himself. And he loved history, a taste I'm sharing more as I get older.
His biggest influence though came from telling us bedtime stories. They were wildly imaginative, and looking back, I realize they formed my love of story. I'm so grateful!
Kathleen wrote: "His biggest influence though came from telling us bedtime stories. They were wildly imaginative, and looking back, I realize they formed my love of story. I'm so grateful!."Oh, I so love that Kathleen!
Greg wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "His biggest influence though came from telling us bedtime stories. They were wildly imaginative, and looking back, I realize they formed my love of story. I'm so grateful!."Oh, I..."
Thanks, Greg. :-)
When I was a kid, my father used to read to me the classic Chinese historical novel Romance of Three Kingdoms. (Think of a Game of Thrones without the dragons and sex.) The prose style is rather different from modern Chinese, so he would have to explain as he went along. I'm sure that encouraged my love of reading and stories, though I've had little interest in Chinese historical fiction in decades.
Agree it's been lovely to read all these experiences . My dad , like his father before him , read a lot , mainly westerns , crime and thrillers but he never talked to me about books and reading . Ours was one of those large chaotic households and reading , when I think back , was a private act for both my parents . We did have a lot of books around though and used the library but we were all allowed to follow our own passions.
My mother always told me that she loved to read and so did I. I only remember seeing her read a book once in the whole time I was growing up, but I've always been a voracious reader. She did point me to the children's books she read as a child (Anne of Green Gables, The Bobsey Twins, Nancy Drew) Apparently she did belong to a book of the month club sometime in the 1940's, so I did read every one of those, appropriate or not ;) I don't know if I'd have been a reader anyway, but I'm still glad she planted the suggestion.
Mod
My father would frequently take me to the library, read to me, and willingly buy books (Scholastic book school order forms were always exciting). The last one is notable because he was relatively tight with a money and not very materialistic but I don't remember him ever saying no to a book and he didn't try to influence what I was reading, he simply encouraged it. When I was a teenager, we would occasionally read the same popular books and discuss (Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears, etc.). He read pretty widely (fiction, self-help, the bible, etc.). He survived a pretty severe stroke in his mid-50s but lost his interest in reading after that, which I always found a bit heartbreaking, but he just adapted. Can't read, well, I'll enjoy TV or the radio. Can't use my right hand, well, I'll just use my left. Stubborn as a mule, too.
Marc wrote: "These are some wonderful stories and influences!My father would frequently take me to the library, read to me, and willingly buy books (Scholastic book school order forms were always exciting). T..."
I'm inspired by your father's story, Marc. Adaptability is crucial, and it's the stubborn ones who last, I've found! Wonderful that he supported your reading, and you aren't alone in your fond memories of ordering from Scholastic--I still remember struggling with the decision of which to get, and the thrill of the day the books arrived.
Mod
Here's to being adaptable and stubborn (a trait I have definitely inherited in spades!).
One of my favourite childhood memories is from when I must have been about 8 or 9 years old; lying against my father's side while he read Cannery Row to me out loud. I think it was the first book he read me that wasn't for children: he'd read it himself, at college, and loved it. (He was a biologist and biology teacher, and I think the character of Doc resonated strongly with him.) So that was my very first "grown-up book".My mother was an English teacher and between the two of them, they ran a school in which / above which I grew up. (We lived in the attic.) So there were always books pretty much everywhere 😁
As a teenager I became a voracious sci-fi and fantasy fan. It was nice to see Jenna namechecking Heinlein in this thread – I read, I think, everything he wrote (and Hitchhiker's Guide too, of course!). When it came time for my university entrance exam, I was allowed to choose which three authors to answer on. I chose Shakespeare, William Golding, and Robert Heinlein. My teachers were appalled. I've never forgotten the words of the English professor who interviewed me: "I see you answered on Robert Heinlein. [Endless pause] He doesn't... grace my shelves." 🤣
Both of my parents were readers, and my father had inherited his library from his own father (an English professor at Pitt in the 1930s and 1940s) (I have his books as well as my father's, and my own, now) (25 bookcases, plus way too many stacks). We haunted used book stores when I was growing up. I grew up surrounded by bookshelves mounted on the walls and books stacked in rooms. I can't imagine living any other way.
21st Century Literature
Books mentioned in this topic
Interview with the Vampire (other topics)The Sum of All Fears (other topics)
Siblings (other topics)
Stalingrad (other topics)
Milkman (other topics)
More...
