How did you become a reader?

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Synamon

I loved trips to the library and once I was old enough I spent whole days there.

You too? The staff of my local library knew me by name

[Sweetpea]

I seriously wouldn't know. I've been reading as long as I can remember. My older brother is 20 months older than I am, and I have always read what he was reading. My parents also were readers, so books were always available. My younger brother, however, didn't read (unless he had to), so having books available doesn't always mean you start reading.

I was so glad when my older brother was finally deemed old enough to go to the big library in town (instead of that smaller we had in our village), and I was allowed to go with him (it was about 10km by bike). I was 11 then and had read about every book in our local library...

[owly]

I broke the code because of impatience. My dad read the comic Asterix to me and my brother and although I'd been having trouble learning how to read that fist year at school I wanted to know what happens faster than my dad read. So one day I took one of the books, sat down and finally cracked it. After that reading was a breeze. Just goes to show that it takes the right book and sometimes that book is a comic.

[applesauce]

I come from non reading parents. I actually can not recall a time either read to me. I had taught myself to read by age 4. I was given the complete works of snuggle pot and cuddle pie for my 5th christmas. I read it in one day, neither of my parents believed me. I had read little women , seven little australians before I was 8 and most books for kids. I then moved onto begging my way into the adult section to read. There was very little YA stuff in those days. I still hear my father saying that I need to get my nose out of a book and outside into the sunshine as I needed a tan LOL. Imagine telling a child to go into the sun these days.
I am so not a book snob, I do not read any great works I just enjoy a good story. My tastes tend to be what a male would choose to read tho I am a 40 something woman. Hmmm what else. I read and encouraged my 19 year old twins to read. Both had to be taught to read. This drove me nuts. Both are now at uni, so have masses of reading. Only my daughter tho reads for pleasure.
So I am really not sure what makes one a reader.

applesauce

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by applesauce

I still hear my father saying that I need to get my nose out of a book and outside into the sunshine as I needed a tan LOL.

Something like this happened at our house daily. Not so much going outside, but coming downstairs and sit with the rest of the family, instead of reading upstairs in my bedroom...

[tubemonkey]

No idea.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

No idea.

It's the stuffing.

It's all about the stuffing.

[NickyWithNook]

My parents were both readers, so I come from a family of them. We had a bookmobile that came right near our house every week, and that was in the days when kids would go to the library or bookmobile alone, so I would always be excited on that day to get new books.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I remember the Scholastic book sale flyers. My parents always gave me money to buy books through those and I always picked up a few titles. I also remember being excited about the read-a-thons to raise money we had in elementary school.

There was no special teacher for me. I don't remember my parents reading to me as a kid. I had a friend who said their dad read them the entire Lord of the Rings as a bedtime story when she was growing up. I was so jealous.

My mom reads a lot so that is probably where I picked up the habit and we share titles now. Usually a one-way street as I don't do pseudo-biogarphy and historical ficiton so much. . My parents always gave me money to buy books through those. In high school I had a lot of friends who read and we'd share titles and some books. Robert Lynn Asprin was big back then.

[xendula]

I grew up in a house full of classics, which I had absolutely no interest in as a child (there wasn't a single children's book in our house, and My infrequent bedtime stories were greek mythology, which hardly interested me at a young age).

I discovered that books can actually be interesting to children when I got my first library card, and I remember walking for 30 minutes each way with a heavy backpack on my back, full of books.

My folks sneered at the lowly children's, and later YA books, and never really encouraged it. They forced me to read "real" literature and the confrontation over what I was reading became too much of a fight the older I got, so I stopped reading in German to avoid fights at about 14.

Luckily, my home town library had a lot of foreign titles, and those were acceptable to my folks because of the foreign language learning disguise, so I pretty much read any book I could borrow in the foreign language section: first I went through the English section, then French, then Spanish and Italian. They even had all Asterix and Obelix comics in any language you can imagine, including Latin, so I read all of the ones I could understand.

Without our library, I would have never been the bookworm that I was. I guess that's why I am such a big proponent of libraries.

As an adult, life and the internet got in the way, and only my first Kindle brought me back into the avid reader world. Love my kindle, love my libraries.

[Laridae]

I don't remember how I started reading; I just remember that I liked it. Since there were Reader's Digests and Encyclopedias in the house I'd read them cover-to-cover. I'd also get my own books; Rin Tin Tin, Hardy Boys.

I lived in a big city, so it's not as if there weren't a lot of other things to do. I had broad interests and liked to play outside a lot too, but reading was definitely something I enjoyed doing. I used to curl up in a big red armchair and read by the hour.

[kennyc]

oh and yes I was huge comics reader and subscribed to many of them by mail....always loved it when new comics would arrive.....course like their name they'd be gone in a Flash (or Superman or Justice League or Green Lantern or ...)

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Something like this happened at our house daily. Not so much going outside, but coming downstairs and sit with the rest of the family, instead of reading upstairs in my bedroom...

My mother used to lock the door, so I couldn't come back inside until she thought I had enough sunshine (or she was able to stand us!)

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

My mother used to lock the door, so I couldn't come back inside until she thought I had enough sunshine (or she was able to stand us!)

That's just evil!

[JSWolf]

As far as I can remember, my mother has always enjoyed reading. I don't remember how it was I learned to read, but I would have to guess my mother had something to do with it.

One thing they did back when I was young was allow me to read what I wanted. They never said I could not read something. I got into science fiction when a friend of the family gave me a box of old books and that included some science fiction and even some Star Trek.

I do remember not liking much of what we read for school. It was a combination of lousy books and having to dissect them. I know English class ruined Shakespeare for a lot kids.