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What or who made you love to read!!and when did it happen?
Johnny Depp...Oohh la la!!Did anyone watch the Kingdom of Heaven with Orlando Bloom?(The title could be wrong)Anyone else notice that the more mussed up he was the better he seemed to look?
It's not natural but it sure is appreciated! :D
My parents are both bookaholics. (They are both English professors - I kind of think they would HAVE to love reading and books!) I really credit my mother the most though, in developing my reading habit.I was four and not reading yet, and my mother was concerned that I was developmentally disabled! (She was reading at 3 and 1/2.) So an old friend of my grandmother's taught me - she was a retired first grade teacher. She used the Dick and Jane books, that in 1970ish they weren't using any more. I do remember being the only child in my kindergarten who could read. In grade school I was always getting books out of the next grade's classroom by the end of the year, because I had already read everything in my own classroom.
I had a serious book habit, and a large bookshelf, by the time I was in first grade!
I think my mother raised me to be a reader, because her mother (who never got past 8th grade, as her father didn't believe in education for girls) raised my mother to be a reader. My mother says her mother would simply devour books from the library every week when she was growing up. (My grandmother was often unwell and confined to her bed, and so did a lot of reading and crossword puzzles, her other addiction.)
I think it runs in the family - on both sides, as my father's parents were also readers, although not quite so much as my mother and her mother.
My grandma taught me to read when I was four.And have loved it ever since.She was an avid reader and so is my dad.My mom likes to read but isn't as obsessed with it as i am.Anyway my gradma would sit with me and we would read together.My first love was the Golden Books.I had so many one title escapes me but it was about a tiger.The other was The Pokey Little Puupy.Then from there i loved anything by Judy Blume,Or Beverely Cleary.I loved Nancy Drew.The Little House books were big with me too.My first grown up book was The Dead Zone by Stephen King and was hooked on him and the horror genre ever since.
Emilee, 'sperm donor' is the only way I could describe him that was 'all ages friendly' lol, we also use a lot of other phrases to describe him!
Johnny Depp is definitely a hottie, and I have to agree with Spudsie, I've been drooling since 21 Jump Street!!I don't remember when I started liking to read, I feel like I've been reading since I can remember. My Mom and Dad were always encouraging, bringing us to the library or buying us new books. I remember the booksales in elementary school, my mom would bring me and I would have such a hard time picking out my next reads. Some things never change!
I remember reading as a kid because it was something to do rather than something I had to do. That changed when my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Reeder, gave me a copy of Anne of Green Gables. Like others, this series really captured my imagination and is still something I will pull out every now and then just because. I also have to thank my parents for indulging my habit once it became apparent that I was addicted. The rule was in our house was never say no to books. So if we were out and about and saw a book we wanted, they had no qualms about getting it for us.
And I have to say when I was in 7th grade, my dad handed me The Lieutenants by W.E.B. Griffin and ever since we have been trading books.
Great question!I don't remember a time I didn't read either. My parents could sit me on the floor in the middle of the room with a book at only a few months old and I'd still be there hours later just looking at the pictures.
I can still remember all my babyhood and childhood favourites too. It was like entering a magical other world, getting lost in a book.
I also remember every saturday morning my Dad and I would walk down to the library a mile away and I would sit on the tiny red plastic chairs and pick out 3 books for that week. I still think fondly of those days.
I can't remember a time when I didn't at least like reading but I really started to love reading in high school, under the influence of my favorite English teacher. I did grow up in a house where my parents and older brother were big readers so I suppose that played a big role, too. Now I can't go a day without reading. And my kids hate reading, which just kills me!
I too can't remember a time when I couldn't read. When I was young my mom was a single mother with 4 small children (all girls) and we didn't have a whole lot of money for extras. Mom would take us to the library every week and then for ice cream. I'd pick out a whole stack of books and I'd read every one of them before we took them back - some of them twice! I was so horse crazy I read every Walter Farley book I could get my hands on, and anything else I could find. I can remember when I got a little older and graduated to romances....Barbara Cartland romances. Embarrassing!My mother is still an avid reader and she's passed that down to 3 if not all 4 of us. If she had internet access she'd be loving this site because she said she's run through everything by her favorite authors. I'll have to take notes just for her.
Kristy: It's funny, I picked it because it was the cleanest way but also most applicable. LOL.
Sherry:
Kingdom of Heaven was a great movie & Orlando was eye candy!!!
Kingdom of Heaven was a great movie & Orlando was eye candy!!!
This is a great question! I've been notorious in my family for walking around with my nose in a book ever since the time I could walk. Before I knew how to read, I used to sit with book and pretend to "read" them, while making up my own stories to go along with the pictures. But I really have to thank my mom and my grandma for sparking the reading bug in me. My mom likes to read, although doesn't always get the chance to, and she's been recommending books for me since I learned to read. And my grandma is a huge reader. I remember sitting in her lap with those Golden Books while she was reading something else.
I was an only child until I was six. My dad had two jobs in those days so my mom read to me every night. I think this is where my love of reading began. Thanks mom!
Hey Lori, the first book of my mom's that I read was King's CUJO. I was about 11 I think. Scared the s* out of me...lol. But then I was hooked to King the rest of my teenage years.
I suppose I started to read on my own :/ I grew up in a big family but no one liked books and education. I cannot remember a single moment when someone even read for me or helped me with my homework. So, it was thanks to school. I remember still when I got my first library card at age 6 when the school visited the library. I thankfully lived only 50m from the library and found myself there everyday, borrowing books before I could read (most pictures you know). I remember having this little pram with me stocked with books which I would borrow one day, flip through them all at home, and next day return them only to come home with a new stack :DI did get encouraged though by my independence and reading. The family liked the idea that someone read books and had big dream.s
I hope that if I someday have my own children I will encourage them and read to them everyday :)
I really didn't like to read as a kid, I was in a split home and no one really helped me with it. My aunt would try and get me interested in books during the summer or anytime I hung out with her. So I think she probably planted the seed. It wasn't until I was in middle school and I was told that I couldn't take certain class b/c my reading scores were too low. So in 7th and 8th grade, I really started reading everything I could get my hands on. My stepmom had really helped me with this. I just remember in 8th grade I think I read every book in the Sweet Valley High series (I cringed to think I read that stuff). My love for reading continued on from there. Cool question!And yeah, there were some definite hunks in the 80s! I was a huge Keifer Sutherland fan in the 80s. Shoot, what am I saying? The man still looks good!
Growing up, my mom always had a book in her purse, one on the nightstand and one stashed at work for lunch hour! I stayed with my grandparents in the summer and they both spent hours reading every day; so I learned quickly if I didn't have my own reading materials (usually V.C. Andrews or Mary Higgins Clark or Agatha Christie) I would be "stuck" with their books--an entire shelf of Reader's Digest Condensed, drawerfuls of National Geographic & the Smithsonian, or Audubon. The first book I ever read at my grandma's behest was called David the Incorrigible. Turns out, I actually learned something. Hmmm...Christian Slater, Johnny Depp. Yum.
My parents read to me a lot as a child and encouraged me to read. The written word was always around when I was growing up.But it wasn't until I was about 7 or so that I got really interested. Funnily enough it was The Little House series that did it for me. I devoured them.
My mom really encouraged me to read when I was a kid. She's a librarian and used to bring home all sorts of wonderful books! (She still does actually.) She's started going to publishers' meetings now and gets to bring home advanced reading copies and all sorts of wonderful things. I love it!My grade 2 teacher, Mr. Reid, read us a bunch of Roald Dahl books. He did all the voices and everything! I'll never forget him reading as the Queen in the BFG... We thought it was brilliant.
When I got a little older my dad got me started on sci-fi with Chocky. I remember reading his old, yellowed copy of that book, sitting in a lawn chair in our back yard. What a great book. From there I moved on to Frank Herbert, Ray Bradbury, and many others besides.
I guess my parents made me love to read. I started on Hooked on Phonics when I was 2 and was reading really well at 3. By that time I wasnt asking my parents if they could read books to me, but if I could read books to THEM.
I started reading or getting into reading when I was very young, my mother would sit me down at night and read to me and sometimes ask me questions like did you like this book? Or do you want me to read another? Then when my daughter Ashley turned 4 she did the same to her, now years later Ashley and I both love to read! Thanks Mom!Pam
My mother!I taught myself how to read when I was 4.
I've been reading since before I can remember. My parents read to me and my sister when we were little. I got my first real "chapter" book from a scholastic order in first grade, it was the first book in the Boxcar Children series. My mom has always said that when the order came in, and I got home from school, I sat down and read it cover to cover before I got back up.
And interestingly enough I was at the library the other week the front desk library was teasing me about how I'm no longer following my dad like a little duckling with a huge stack of books out of the library, I've still got the huge stack of books.
and the secret crush would have to be Johnny Depp or Milo Ventimiglia
Mod
Haha! I'm the one with the Emu! And welcome to the group Emma! Hope you like it here. :)
When I was in the third grade they distributed pamphlets that advertised books your parents could buy for you. My mother let me get Beverly Cleary’s “Ramona the Pest” and I adored that book! It was the first book I ever owned, and I was instantly addicted. It was the first story I encountered where the little girl was not perfect and always well behaved. No wonder I identified with her!
I loved reading as a kid, but the ones that made me a life-long reader are:Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
Joanne Greenberg's I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie
Spent a lot of time with my grandmother and aunt - both voracious readers. How would it not rub off on me???
Thanks Emma. Ha. Hope things don't get too confusing.
I never liked to read until I was 31 years old. I abhorred books before then. It was torture to read books up until then. I only read as much as I thought I needed to get by. In 1981, while I was in the hospital, a friend brought two books for me to read. I thanked her and put them on the nightstand. I never expected to pick one up. I'm so glad I did, because it started my reading career. The author was Stephen King and the book was The Shining. I loved that book to pieces. Then I read the other book which was Ghost Story, which was kind of an anti-climax after The Shining. I liked it a lot too, though. Thank you my friend, for starting me on a road to imagination, fun, tears, information, and love, books.
My Mom and my brother encouraged my reading. When my brother and I were around 10 and 11 we had a friendly challenge to see who could read the most books- We ended up reading pretty much the exact same thing (the entire Hardy boys and Nancy Drew series) and have been doing it with many other books ever since!
Both my parents were readers so that was a great foundation. But it was my Dad, who really cultivated my love of reading. He always had 5-8 books going at the same time.....he read everything: fiction, mysteries, horror, sci-fi, religion, history, politics.....you name it. He was never without a book (or two). There was one in every room and even in the car. You just never knew. He would read on line at the bank if there was time. He took me weekly to the library. It was my second home. He was the one who read to me as a child since my mom worked nights. He read to me from A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson until I knew some poems by heart. hehe. I miss him. He would absolutely love that I work in a bookstore now! :)
My mother and sisters started buy me books when I was a baby. Then when I entered kindergarten I had a teacher named Mrs. Gomez. She was presented an award at our local library and invited myself and 2 other students to attend the ceremony. We got a formal tour of the library and I got my first library card that very night. The rest is history.
I LIKED to read when I was a kid but didn't LOVE it like I do now.I remember reading Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Box Car Children, some Judy Blume...
When I was in college I went thru a Danielle Steele stage where all I read was her books.
I really got into reading after I had my son. Some people at work were big readers and we started talking about it and they turned me on to Patricia Cornwell and Janet Evanovich.
Then I found the internet.
Bookreporter, Bookcrossing, Amazon...then Bookmooch, Paperbackswap
I also started getting magazines like Pages and Bookmark.
I joined 2 book clubs and found more people to discuss books with.
I guess it was a combination of a lot of things coming together at once. Having kids, turning off he TV, turning on the internet, bookclubs...I became passionate about reading.
The beginning of this was about 6 years ago. I've been reading almost 100 books a year since then.
My father gave me my love of books. From the time I was very young he would take me to the library every week. Our reading styles differed, he only read Non-fiction while I prefer fiction but our love of all things books and reading was the same. My fondest life memories are being at the library with him.
That reminds me, in grade 5 our teacher set up a competition to see who could read the most books. It didn't work too well though because my best friend and I were each reading far more than anyone else. So the challenge was changed from an individual competition to the two of us against the rest of the class. But that too fell apart as we were still winning by too wide a margin. So it became a three-way race: my friend, myself, and the rest of the class. Guess who won by about 10 books...Yes, I was that much of a dork.
Up until I was 40 or so, you couldn't pay me to willingly read a book. If you gave me a book, I ran in the other direction. I couldn't stand it. Agatha Christie opened my eyes to the joys of reading. I had only read one mystery before her. I loved her style. I loved everything about her. She was such an easy, light read. Then I graduated to Andrew Greeley and Anne Perry. Now I like all kinds of books. I can't wait to read a book now. I can't believe I missed this pleasure for the first 40 or more years of my life.
My mom read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy to my sisters and I when I was about nine-years-old. I think that having her read to us, especially series, got me hooked on reading. I love to read series. I love to read books. I blame my mom! :D
I will have to blame my mom on this one as well, Sharee :) My mom used to read to be me before bed, it was one of my favorite times of the day. She read the unabridged Aesop's fables, Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm, Charlottes Web: books that tickled my imagination and made it fun for me to read.
Where would we be without our mum's? I have childhood memories of my mum reading "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe" to me. My favourites as a child were anything and everything by Enid Blyton, then Donna Parker by Marcia Levin (I read them over and over) and I also remember reading lots of poetry. I'm sure there were others as I was a real bookworm.
Unfortunately I seem to be the onlyone in my family who likes reading(so not even talking about my addiction). My mother told me that I used to sit in my box the whole afternoon with my books and some bread and that I didn't call her for anything. I was happy to watch my books, chew on them and alternate that with chewing on my bread! At school I already loved to read and was told that I was really good at it, but don't remember if that gave me the love for reading. As for as my memory goes I think I would have to thank Agatha Christie. When I was around 8-9 years old I was already reading her books and got completely hooked on them. Even now after more than 15 years I still adore them.You know the books you have to read for school and that you can only choose from the list given by your teachers? Depending on the subect we had to read for instance five for dutch, three for english or something like that.... I loved it!!! While we had to hand in the second or thirth summary of the book we had read, I was already finished with all of them and read for fun.
Stephen KingAs a child and teenager, I didn't read much. I enjoyed a few books now and then, but I would read one every other month (as a child) and as a teenager, if it wasn't an assignment, forget it. As a young adult, I started reading more because I had a long commute, but I would only read if I wasn't sleepy. Then I fell away from it. I read again when the Harry Potter and LoTR craze was a few years old, but still I was only reading that and nothing else.
Growing up, my mother read some when she was a homemaker, but once she started working and going to school, there was no time for recreational reading.
After reading Stephen King: On Writing, I started to grow interested in reading. He made it seem so fascinating, and he was right. It has been 3 years and I've read over 150 books (which is a lot for me) and books I probably would have never picked up otherwise, books by Edith Wharton, the Bronte's or Thornton Wilder would have never come across my radar before.
So....Thanks Stephen!
It was my mum that got me into reading so much and I'm so grateful towards her for it. I can remember it well. She used to tuck me in at night and read Enid Blyton to me and ever since then I've been book obsessed.Thanks mum! :)
Giovanna you have to be British, 'me mum'. (I used to say 'our mam' so you can guess where I'm from.
Saved By Grace, you're in good compnay here!
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Ahhhh.....21 Jump Street.....excuse me while I wipe up the drool....