Aussie Readers discussion
You and Your Books!
>
What started your love for reading and/or writing?
I feel like I have answered this before. Perhaps it was in another group
The first book I remember being read to me was in Kindergarten. It was Where the Wild Things Are and has always been a fond favourite.
The first book I owned was given to me by an Aunt. The Aunt had a rather tragic end, but the book lives on as a special memory of her. It was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It really got me hooked into books particularly fantasy. I read it while I was on holidays at my Grandmas Sisters house. The house was full of old wardrobes. I investigated them all.
The first book I remember being read to me was in Kindergarten. It was Where the Wild Things Are and has always been a fond favourite.
The first book I owned was given to me by an Aunt. The Aunt had a rather tragic end, but the book lives on as a special memory of her. It was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It really got me hooked into books particularly fantasy. I read it while I was on holidays at my Grandmas Sisters house. The house was full of old wardrobes. I investigated them all.
My story is very much like yours Melanie! My mum always read to us as children and placed a lot of importance on reading in our lives. The first book I really remember was a collection of childrens tales, one of which was the first chapter of... The Hobbit! I used to have dreams about it (magic and dragons etc) and read it over and over. Just went on from there I think.:)
I never was a reader until about 3 years ago. Surprising my love for books started with a Radio segment on Triple J called The Culture Club. I had always enjoyed this show with Craig Schuftan so I decided to read his book Hey! Nietzsche! Leave Them Kids Alone! I loved it so much I wanted to read more about The Romantics, all their poems, anything. This started my love of reading.
:) investigating all the wardrobes haha :) we got a new old Thailand door for our front archway, I always think of Narnia when i open it and walk under the archway into our garden haha my dog plays the part of the waiting mr Tumness. I'm not sure if this discussion was poster before but I couldn't find it anywhere sorry if it was. The Hobbit is still one of my all time favs...I stole my dads copy its very battered and has the authors original sketch of smaug on the front :D
O The Romantics did a huge assignment on them one year...do you have a favorite?
I'm looking forward to the movie. PJ did such a great job with LOTR!
O I know but its coming out in two parts...I'm not really sure how I feel about that
I didn't know that!!! I wonder where they'll cut it. It's been so many years since I read the book I'll have to go back for a reread I think.:/
Melanie wrote: "O The Romantics did a huge assignment on them one year...do you have a favorite?"John Keats is definitely my favourite. I relate more to the silent brooders :)
Love of reading comes from my love of cartoons/comics from when I was a child.I've never been a huge reader when it came to novels but as I've gotten older I'm enjoying them more and more.
I will forever read comics but I went through patches of not reading them basically because of their prices. Now with my own income and online shopping my comic reading is endless.
I was put off reading novels in High School because my Humanities teacher made us read Bridge to Terabithia which frankly put me off reading for the majority of my high school life. Also in another English class we were given a book to read but I can't remember it except 'twin peaks' was used alot..It was kinda smutty and just felt wrong to read in HS.
Then a few years back I had a bet with myself to read 100 books in a year. I did it! And since then I haven't really stopped :p
That's my story XD
OH and on writing...I've writen stories for a class I took...I ended up posting them on fanfiction site or something like that. Got some good feedback but that was back in 2002.
I've an interest in poetry but I don't write that much anymore but I did have a poem published in a world wide book :)
Both my parents were readers, Mum was fiction, Dad was non-fiction. I don't remember them reading to me but they must of, and I very definitely remember going to libraries (yes more than one) with them, having my own card as soon as I could & being allowed to pick whichever kids book I wanted. I was reading pretty young & I still remember fondly the Pixie books, great illustrations. I think the pictures in kids books also started my love of art.
I've never stopped reading, outgrew both schools libraries and the local library and was well on the way to doing the same to the main district library when I got married & moved to new libraries, LOL.
Now I buy more books than I get from the library but if they've got something I want to read, I still get it from there.
The libraries (school and public) were a haven. I wasn't a popular kid, and at home I had two annoying younger brothers, so I'd hide in the stacks and then bring a pile home and hide in the covers.
My Mum was always a big reader but I remember Dad reading The Little Red Engine with great sound effects. The first book I read was an Enid Blyton Secret Seven.
I can't remember not loving books. It started with a stash of Little Golden Books some fifty years ago and just went on from there! I recently heard about some research indicating that having parents who read is a more important predictor of whether a child will be a reader than being read to as a child. That rings true for me. No doubt my parents read to me when I was very young, but I have no real memory of it. However, one of my clearest memories is going into my parents' bedroom early in the morning or late at night. Invariably, they would both be reading in bed. (In the mornings my father would be in bed smoking a cigarette, drinking a cup of coffee and reading at the same time!). My mother is almost blind now, with macular degeneration. The worst thing for her has been not being able to read anymore. Thank God for audiobooks! We put them on cd for her, but find it hard to keep up with the demand!!
GOOSEBUMPS!!! my god i used to love them sooo much!
Hmm, well i was on holiday for half of kindergarten and half of grade one.. so i was hardly literate until around grade two. In my house we had loads of books (3 older siblings) and i started reading Famous Five..loved it. Probably wasn't until grade 4 or so when i read Swiss Family Robinson when my love for reading really grew :) hope it never fades!
Mod
Mod
LOL
Brenda wrote: "Laura wrote: "LOL"
XD Shoulda known,huh?
My grandmother would buy me Archies when I was little to help encourage my reading.
Also Archie publish Sonic The Hedgehog comics soooo I've many respects for them for so many reasons.
Books have always been part of my life: As far back as I can remember, dad read to me every night. (He doesnt like reading himself, but for he would always tuck me in to bed). He read The Cat in the Hat Winnie the Witch Collection The Magical Bicycle Love You Forever Hop on Pop Alice Nizzy Nazzy Hobo Dog in the Ghost Town Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him! (Bright & Early Books and Dazzle the Dinosaur so many times I think he could STILL recite them If I asked :)I remember I got home from play school one day-probably 4 or 5 years old, and my mum gave me the first four 'Harry Potter books'.
She told me that everybody loved them, and she would read me one chapter every night.
Sure enough, my dad (not mum. She lied :P) read me one chapter every night, and I loved them!
Once we had finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we reading Bedknob and Broomstick, The Worst Witch Collection and some others that I cant remember.
This really got me to love reading (or being read to).
In reception I decided to read the Harry Potter books alone.
I remember reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a 750+ page book, when I was in year 2. Seven years old. Theres a pretty cute photo of me fallen asleep with that book still open. I'll see if I can find to to post here :)
So yeah, thats what started my joy of reading. Dad reading Harry Potter to me.
You are very lucky Jessica. I swear my parents never learned to read. I never caught them at it anyway.
Mod
You are very amazing Jessica, reading that sort of book at 7 yo!!! Your parents (Dad) have definitely given you a wonderful gift! :)
I've always loved books and reading, I'm not good with numbers and that made me love words even more while I was at school. I can't remember a time when I didn't love books.
I remember getting the first harry potter i was in yr 2 and my aunty sent it over from america i loed it and every one payed me out fro reading but low and behold two years later every one loved it and the movie was be thought about and while every one was still on number 1 i had the third imported from the states haha....i think i literally grew up with harry potter 7th one came out while i was in yr 10 i think so from yr 2 till yr 10 i read the same series :D
I think my generation had a thing with reading while we were younger it was considered very "uncool"
@ jessica i have a similar photo of me when i was about 11 trying to read my dads lord of the rings its all three in one with eh elvish dictionary and in hard cover...i almost broke my nose my parents took the photo before helping me haha
I think my generation had a thing with reading while we were younger it was considered very "uncool"
@ jessica i have a similar photo of me when i was about 11 trying to read my dads lord of the rings its all three in one with eh elvish dictionary and in hard cover...i almost broke my nose my parents took the photo before helping me haha
I spent summers with my grandfather watching idle logging camps. Lots of free time and he read a lot so I read a lot.
I read all of the Harry Potter books aloud to my son until the last one came out and he just couldn't wait until night time. He took it to school and got told off by the principal for telling details to other students (who begged him for a snippet).
Yes, I had forgotten about that rule. Great reminder Carmel.
Brent wrote: "I spent summers with my grandfather watching idle logging camps. Lots of free time and he read a lot so I read a lot."
A lovely story Brent.
A lovely story Brent.
Neither my mum or dad were brought up to read books as a matter of course. (Mum born 1916, Dad 1917). They were considered idle luxuries by the Aussie working class! I do remember both of them reading magazines, Dad "Popular Mechanics" and "Reader's Digest", and Mum "Women's Weekly" and other women's magazines - in the days before those were just celebrity followers. So the whole world of reading opened up for me when I learned to read at school. By six I was addicted and when I was nine bought my first book, with my allowance. It was Kingsley's "The Water Babies". Thereafter I foraged them from wherever I could. Some rellies started to give them to me for Christmas and birthdays.
It was 1953 and my last year at primary school when we first had to study a book for English. It went all year, the same book, "Sea Change", and I hated it with a deadly passion. Which is a shame, looking back it was probably OK in itself. But by then I'd discovered Biggles and other boys' adventure books. There were girls' books too, but they were mostly very proper and didn't have a lot of fun in my opinion. Never did read Enid Blyton.
I only went to Grade 10 at High School, normal for girls then because it was where you learned typing and shorthand. But for English one of the books set was Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Heaven on earth, such exotic tales! I bought a copy of "Kim" and from then on that's where all my allowance went, on books. I devoured Mary Grant Bruce's "Billabong" series, among others. Most people I knew considered me a bit peculiar, always with my nose in a novel.
When my husband and I were engaged, my mother-in-law-to-be stated, "Reading is unhealthy." I'm not sure whether she was worried about my eyes or my general dislike of sport, which hubby's family were into in a big way. Don't get me wrong, she was a dear, kind woman, but her parents had been poor German immigrants and farmers and she herself married at the beginning of the Great Depression. So anything not productive or practical was not her thing.
I started writing at age 11, began sending short stories to magazines at 13 (none were ever accepted, of course!), and won the local Short Story segment of the Eisteddfod at 15. The prize was about thirty shillings, as I recall ($3). I was working by then and badly needed a new pair of shoes - and bought "Gallipoli" by Alan Moorehead. In the 50s there was a great deal of W.W.II non-fiction around, and I spent my book-a-week money on that.
Sorry to have rabbited on for so long!
Monya (aka Mary)
Okay Carmel, if its a rule I'll look super hard for that super cute-if I do say so myself-photo of my sleeping with 'Order of the Photneix', big fat book, seven years old.Its quarter to 11 now, bedtime, so I'll search tomorrow :)
Monya wrote: "Neither my mum or dad were brought up to read books as a matter of course. (Mum born 1916, Dad 1917). They were considered idle luxuries by the Aussie working class! I do remember both of them rea..."That is such a lovely story Mony! You could never 'rabbit on' too long for me. I love hearing about your life and experiences. Funny to think of books as an unnaffordable luxury (in these days of libraries) and I too was addicted to the Mary Grant Bruce novels as a little girl.:)
How sad for those of you who grew up with parents who didn't read - and how inspiring that you do anyway! I love these stories.
I will look hard for my picture but ill have to scan it on...it was taken on one of his special old cameras. but i will try
Mod
Absolutely wonderful story Monya!! You should write a book about all your experiences...from a youngster to where you are now..it would be read by many, I'm sure. The way you have written the above is very interesting!! :)
Thanks Mandy, Cheryl, Brenda - but my story is hardly inspiring, pretty ordinary. I made friends at school with girls who just happened to read too, and they're still my friends.Oh, and I discovered Science Fiction in a second-hand shop at Maroochydore when I was 15 too. (We camped every year in a tent, great fun. Again, only the rich could afford flats.) It was Arthur C. Clarke's "Sands Of Mars" (in which he proposed we'd be on Mars in the 1990s) and started me on a lifelong love affair with sci-fi. Though not fantasy so much, I like to believe it really can happen.
I have an anthology of 1940s s.f. and in one of the stories, the military are interviewing an alien, with a sergeant recording it all on a tape recorder. One of those big old nachines with two tapes six or eight inches across. The sergeant had to be in on the interview because he was the technical specialist. I tell you, old s.f. is full of fun.
Thanks again for saying such nice things. But isn't it nice to be addicted readers?
Monya (aka Mary)
Old s.f. is fun - finding out what came true and what they didn't even dream of....:)
The one thing no one dreamed of is what happened, is happening - the computer and electronic revolution. I still find it wondrous that we can take photos with mobile phones. Heck, mobile phones are wondrous. And that my son has a link between his computer and mine in case he needs to work on it from 50km away...I reckon my next valuable discovery in books was Georgette Heyer. I was a young married with a small child in an outer suburb (speaking of phones, the nearest was a public booth four blocks away). Women were isolated and dependant on their neighbours for company, and the girl across the road loaned me her Georgette novels. For which I'll ever be grateful. We're still friends.
Monya (aka Mary)
Michael wrote: "I was a late bloomer when it came to the joy of novel reading. MY older sister had tried for years to get me into reading but what finally got me going was this book [book:Marley & Me: Love and Lif..."Yay, Michael, welcome to the Collectors' Club.
Animal stories - have you read Gerald Durrell and James Herriot? And there's a treasure you'd have to search for on Abe or some such site; "I'll Trade You An Elk" by Charles A. Goodrum. It's the single funniest book I've ever read in my life, published in the 60s I think. The writer recalls when his father was director of a small town zoo, marvellous, hilarious, stories and all true.
Monya (aka Mary)
There's one copy of I'll Trade You an Elk, in my library system - I'll try to order it right after we move! It does almost look familiar - I read a lot of those kinds of stories when I was young.
When I was younger my dad and i would go to the library every fortnight and we would both get a couple books. We both weren't big readers but it was a phase we went through i guess. I read a lot of Baby Sitters Club and Dolly Fiction (embarrasing right) Dad got books on fishing and gardening. Then many years later I enjoyed the Harry Potter series and would read a Nicholas Sparks or Jodi Picoult book once a year.
But embarrasing as it is what really triggered the addiction I have for books now was the twilight series, I read it before the massive craze hit and got all my friends on to it. I know many of you are rolling your eyes at me....but I am grateful that it reminded me how good it is to come across a book you just can't put down.
Twilight has got lots people people interested in reading. I read it myself *just* before it became popular...when I was almost finished year 7. I remember the movie trailer came out when I was half way through the first book. The craze piched up when I was on Eclipse, I think.
They;re enjoyable books, definitely. I'll probably re-read them some day. They're just not greatly written, and the movies suck.
Thanks guys! Feel less embarrased now ;o)
Two words. The Hobbit. hehe. Seriously; that's all it took.
hobbit was my first book :D
so great i read it right after my dad took us to see the puppet show i think i was like 6 or 7
then came harry potter in yr 2
:D
so great i read it right after my dad took us to see the puppet show i think i was like 6 or 7
then came harry potter in yr 2
:D
Just William - can remember saving my pocket money, 6d a week, to buy a new William book, which at that time cost 7/6d for the hard back edition. Never saw a paperback edition.I still have those six or seven books that I bought with pocket money or received as birthday or Christmas presents. Must have been around 7 when I first 'found' William. Happy days with the feeling of anticipation opening a new book - I still have that anticipation 60 years later :-o)
Just William does look like a lot of fun. Not readily available here in the US, but I'll see what I can find.
Before I fall by Lauren Oliver. Beautiful writing and a story I grew to love as I read it. Additionally, she is a young talented writer who inspired me to start writing.:)
Biggles!And I did read the Just William books too.
Aussie Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
The Stone Cage (other topics)Goodnight Moon (other topics)
The Magic Faraway Tree (other topics)
The Sam Pig Story Book (other topics)
The Water Babies (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Enid Blyton (other topics)Kathryn Kenny (other topics)
Estelle Grey (other topics)
Roald Dahl (other topics)
Stephen King (other topics)
More...
For me, my love of books diffidently started with my father :) he taught my how to read at a pretty young age, he also used to take my brothers and I to all sorts of play's and adaptations of some of his favorite books (this also started my love of theater)
But I think it really started when he took us to see The Hobitt the puppet play in Brisbane. I was pretty young but I remember walking out and wanting to go straight back in and watch it again. when we got home dad started reading me the hobbit but he went a bit to slow for my liking so I picked it up and started reading it myself and thus my obsession was born, I now have a pact with myself that one day I will own more books then my father (problem is he keeps buying more books) my mother hates our obsession and the clutter of books that now takes over our house :D
thats my rather long winded story whats yours?