How/when did your addiction start?

[[deleted user]]

as a little girl my mom bought me the little golden books I guess thats when my reading addiction began. After my divorce I threw away all my books (over 100) and didn read again for almost ten years. I love my books and I like to see full bookshelves of books Ive read and reread. My question is why do men, kids, and even pets get jealous when I read?

[Thom]

Hi Tammy, In answer to your question, I would probably say you go into a world of your own when engrossed in a good book. This escape from present reality isn’t unique to you (as I’m sure the majority of the Goodreads members experience the same thing). Unfortunately non-readers have no idea of this special place and see you as uninterested and tuned out to them. Some may even feel that such a world inspired by books is a bad substitute for their company….. They may just be wrong!

[[deleted user]]

good reply Thom Im sure your right

[Joy]

I have always loved books, and I too, loved those scholastic leaflets! And once a year (I think it was scholastic) would do a book fair at our school! Ooooh, I was in loooove! I have always loved buying books, and now I am in love with Amazon,and e-book purchasing! I worked in the book section of Sams Club a few years back...oh it was so awesome! I bought soooo many books!! Ok...and I still do! I think I always will!

[Amber]

My addiction was pretty much fostered from birth. Neither of my parents were big readers when I was a child, but they ALWAYS read to me and I ALWAYS had books around. My dad, who I can't remember ever reading anything other than what he read to us, would read at least one book to us every night up until the time I began reading well enought to correct him when he skipped things or mispronounced them. Like many of you, I fell in love with Scholastic when I started school. It was like a little piece of heaven printed on cheap paper. We didn't have a lot of money but Scholastic book orders offered books inexpensive enought that my mom made sure I got one every month. I built quit a collection and would catalogue them in the same way that the school library did...each had a number and my name printed on the inside of the cover and a card in it that I would make my sister or brother sign if they wanted to "check it out" from me...they even got a due date. I still have all of my childhood books with the little cards tucked into the cover. I am now a 28 year old teacher of gifted kids who uses pretty much the same system when a student wants to check books out from my classroom library...and I still pour over the Scholastic Book orders as well.

[Jeanine]

My book addition has been around since childhood. Neither of my parents were not readers but I loved my books. Dad did however read to me.

Like Amber I can remember making my books into a library with cards to be checked out.

I have three children all loved books as children. Only one is still to this day a true book addict. She called one day and said Mom I need to clean up my part of the apartment. What do I do with my books. I can't throw them away. I don't know what she ever did with them. I do know that when I was last at her place she justified keeping 95% of them!
Like she needs to explain that need to me! lol

[Lianne]

Apparently I have a baby photo of me holding a book. Yeah, that's as far back as I go when it comes to reading and loving books ;) This love was further fuelled when my aunt gave me a number of booksets ranging from Sesame Street to Roger Hargreaves Mr. Men and Little Miss series xD

As for book buying, I remember always enjoying our rare trips to the bookstore when I was younger. When I was in high school, I would take the occasional trip to the bookstore on the way home because my school was downtown and the bookstore was along the way to the metro station, which I guess fuelled my book buying spree. But it wasn't until my undergrad years that my tbr pile went a bit out of control *blushes*

[Jill]

Book addicts unite!!! It appears we all started reading/buying at a young age and were influenced by our families. Our family used to read the encyclopedia in the evening...it was supposed to be a learning experience but was pure joy. Our home, and now mine, is filled with books......as Karen said above, I love to read and I love books. They are old friends that never get old. I still have the first book my father bought for me when I was too young to read (age 2).

[Kori]

I actually started later. My mom was sooo worried because I never picked up a book when I was little lol (I liked sports, outdoors, wreaking havoc on the neighborhood). Then something happened in high school. I actually read a book I loved - one that wasn't a school assignment.

My book addiction started later, but, man, did it grab a hold of me.

[Alpha]

Wow! Book addictions are rampaging through this website. Guess no psychologist is attempting to find a cure.

[Jill]

If a cure is found, I am ignoring it!!!!!! ;o)

[Christina]

I developed a love for reading at a young age. I had a decent book collection as a kid and I was always at the library borrowing books! As I got older, I got out of the habit of reading for fun :/ Thankfully, right after I graduated HS, I reconnected with my love of reading and have been at it ever since! Although it hasn't been until the past year that it's gotten a little out of hand! LOL

[Running]

I wasn't allowed to buy from the Scholastic book forms because my mom and sister were both worked at Barnes and Noble so I was exposed to reading from a very early age. I still love reading and couldn't imagine a world without it.

[sonya]

Istarted in 3rd grade with horror books like Chris Pike and RL Stine. I had Golden Little Books, Nancy Drew in 5th grade, and I hung around people who also read a lot. now i can't be anywhere without a book. omg

[Beverly]

I come from a family of readers and married a man from a family of readers, but there are two different addictions being discussed here. Most of the people in both of our families read many books, but do not feel the need to own them all or collect them. My husband and I do like to own the books and we have trouble getting rid of many of them. Scary how fast our shelves are filling up!
I can't speak for my husband, but my addition started when I was a teenager, when I started reading non-fiction for fun.

[Thom]

You’re right Beverly, there are reading collectors and reading non-collectors. I am defiantly the first like you are. I do, however, have a library card and occasionally read library books. I generally use the library much like I use Goodreads as a way to discover new authors and stories.

[Erin]

According to my parents, I was two when I started reading. Since PBS was a staple in our house, and my favorite program as a wee one was 'The Electric Company', I suppose that's where I learned. My parents and grandparents all encouraged me to read as much as I wanted.

I remember those Scholastic forms, although we were limited to how many we could buy, but each week, Mom took my brother and me to the library. I can remember sitting in the children's room with all the books, curled up in a chair, reading anything I could get my hands on, then having to check a different book out when we left because I'd finished it.

We had tons of Little Golden Books in the house (anyone remember The Tawny Scrawny Lion? it was my favorite!) and I wore out my copy of Raggedy Ann Stories before I started school. By first grade, I was getting the Little House series, one book at a time, for good test grades, and spent my allowance on the entire Black Stallion series. It's been a slippery slope ever since.

I still have my Little House books - the yellow covers, the paperback boxed set of Narnia, and found a copy of Raggedy Ann Stories that matched the edition I had as a little girl. Just flipping through the pages reminds me of how much I enjoyed them back then.

[Joy]

I have always been a big reader and loved buying books, but my obsession didn't actually start in earnest until the spring of 2008. My husband was deployed to Iraq and I was working part time as a floor associate in the book section of Sams Club. With all those free hours of hubby being gone and being around those new books practically every day...it just snowballed and before I knew it my TBR shelf was out of control, and it continues to be! And then in late winter of 2009 I was introduced to GoodReads and we're all enablers here, it just got worse!

[Alondra]

Kyle wrote: "I hope no cure is every found.:D"

If they find a cure, i will sabotage the lab making it!! Or hold the psycho-nut hostage who tries to cure me... *see's red* 8/

[Bianca]

it started when I learned to read. At 6 and an half it was children books, by eight I was reading YA and fantasy novels... I just never stopped. *mama interrupts her, reads the answer and says she should add that at 4 she already forced people to read Roald Dahl's novels to her*

[Lianne]

Jill wrote: ". Our family used to read the encyclopedia in the evening...it was supposed to be a learning experience but was pure joy."

You know, it's funny but I used to get a kick out of pulling out this old desk encyclopedia we had when I was young and flip to the entries on ancient Greek history or ancient Roman history. (Recently my mum tried packing that book into a box to give away and I salvaged it out; too many fond memories with that out-of-date encyclopedia, lol)

And then there was this one time where this salesperson managed to sell the beginning two volumes of an encyclopedia to my parents and I would flip through it every so often as well.

[Candace]

Mine definitely started with Sweet Valley High and The Babysitters Club when I was in first grade, 7 years old. I remember learning how to read and thinking "the whole world just opened up to me!"

[Marsha]

I've been reading for a very long time - I distinctly remember stockpiling books from a local used book store as young as 12 (when I started babysitting and making my own money). There's one book in particular though that I keep remembering as that "one book" that really tipped the scale for me and set me off on my 'addiction.' And now, it's driving me crazy that I can't remember the name of it. Is there some website where you can plug in details of a book and narrow down the name of it? I'm sure it isn't a book of great renown - just a book about a spoiled teenage girl who goes to live with her father for the summer in Australia. They go into the Australian outback where she meets a young man and ultimately discovers that she doesn't need her designer jeans, etc. and rescues a koala bear and decides to stay in Australia with her dad rather than going back to live with her high society mother in the USA. I know - it's a deep book! LOL! But, the name escapes me and it's driving me crazy!

[Joseph]

Marsha wrote: "I've been reading for a very long time - I distinctly remember stockpiling books from a local used book store as young as 12 (when I started babysitting and making my own money). There's one book ..."

Marsha, Goodreads has a group that is set up to do just what you are looking for, help you remember the names of books. Check out What's The Name of That Book??? http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/185

[Marsha]

Joseph wrote: "Marsha wrote: "I've been reading for a very long time - I distinctly remember stockpiling books from a local used book store as young as 12 (when I started babysitting and making my own money). Th..."

Thanks so much for the info! I'm going to check it out right away:)

[Joseph]

Katie wrote: "My parents always made a big deal out of the fact that in kindergarten I tested at a 7th grade reading level. So I've been reading as long as I can remember. My school participated in this reading ..."

Katie, talk about bringing back memories. I remember doing that Pizza Hut reading program. Scholastic was a big part of my start in reading and collecting books, too.

[Chris]

At the minor league baseball team I interned for a couple years ago we had a reading program set-up in the community where if you read X numbers of books (each individual teacher or grade decided on the number they wanted) you got to first base and got a free soda or slushie. Then if you read more to get to 2nd base you got a free kids buffet at a local restaurant. Third base and homerun readers got a free ticket to a baseball game. It happened to be a logistical mess that required a ton of time on mine and another woman's part, but it's a big success every year. I think we ended up with like 54 area schools involved with it. It's wonderful knowing that you helped put on a program that encouraged kids to read and learn a love of reading/books.

[Joseph]

Chrissy wrote: "It's wonderful knowing that you helped put on a program that encouraged kids to read and learn a love of reading/books."

I know what you mean. I'm a Youth Services Librarian and we do this sort of thing every summer for the neigborhood kids and it is really rewarding for everyone involved in so many different ways.

[Mackenzi]

We had a lot of books in the house by the time I could read, so the book buying part didn't come until school and those Scholastic book orders. My parents always told us money was never wasted on books, so they'd let me and my sister order at every opportunity. When the orders arrived and they delivered at school, most kids would have one or two books, and we would have to carry a box home. Once I went with my dad to a Scholastic book warehouse to pick up an order that didn't get delivered to his class (he taught at the school I went to) and I was so impressed with the huge stacks of books, it was like the Costco of books, and I wanted to spend hours in it. When my parents started taking us to book stores, my mind was already programmed to want to buy every book that looked even the least bit interesting.

I still have my huge set of Calvin and Hobbes comic collections I got from those book orders. Those were good times.

[Leah]

When I was in high school, I think. My aunt gave a vcd of the movie The Little Prince. I loved it so much! The next day she bought me the book. After I read it, I was so happy! The book took me to another world. It was a very nice feeling. That was when I started to become serious in collecting books.

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse]

My book-buying addiction began in public school, when I started working and had more money to spend on the book fairs. It only got worse when I started work at the library, and got first dibs on used book sales!