[Latinandgreek]

I learned to read quite young (at age 3.5 - 4). My mum had read to me every night before bedtime, and once I learned to read I read to myself every night before bedtime. I still can't fall asleep without reading, usually for at least an hour. I was shy and did not have many children my age to play with in the neighbourhood, and had a public library up the street; book quickly became my best friends. I've been going to the library at least once a week since the age of 6. I vividly remember that first trip to the library with my dad; it remains one of my fondest memories. Since then I've rarely been without a book - I've always carried books with me wherever I went. There is always a book in my purse.

I really don't know what it's like not to be a reader. For what it's worth, no one in my immediate family is a reader, but several of my paternal cousins are very big readers. My father says that his grandfather was never seen without a book, and spoke several foreign languages, including Mandarin, which I imagine very few rural Europeans would have spoken at that time. I like to think that I inherited my love of reading and language learning from him.

My husband was not a reader when we first started dating. He now can't fall asleep without reading. I used every birthday, holiday and anniversary as an opportunity to buy him a book on a topic that interested him in an attempt to get him reading. It looks like it did the trick!