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My parents were avid readers and they read to me. Not just fiction but children's science books as well. I learned to read in grade one, like most others, my parents made no attempt to teach to read on my own. My earliest recollection of reading was from the summer of '51 or '52. My parents had kept every copy of the Toronto Telegram during the Second World War, from September '39 through to August '45. That summer I sat in the basement of our house and read every strip of Buck Rogers from the start of the war to the end. This resulted in me becoming interested is astronomy (and all the sciences) as well as a life-long interest in science fiction. Alas, Flash Gordon was in the competing Toronto Star which my parents did not take so I missed out on him. I'm sure I read some others but only Buck Rogers stands out.
This was also the tail end of the "golden age" of radio. I found that listening to radio drama as engrossing as reading. No special effects have ever equalled the visuals that a book or radio drama can evoke. I still love to listen to the old Suspense episodes, one of the best programs ever produced or the Ruby and Jack Flanders tales from ZBS Media.
My mother and my aunt (her sister) were enthusiastic readers of mysteries and historical fiction. They traded books back and forth all the time. Between them, they bought far more books than either would have on their own. The current crop of account-ridden publishers should take note of that. The won't.
And now I'm off to continue to read my current book -- Edge by Soji Suzuki.
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