[Poll] As a child... were you?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

My parents didn't see the point or use in it...

My grandparents thought I read too much as well. (Young ladies should never sit and do nothing. That's what sewing and other such needle work were for. Keeps your hands busy and out of trouble. Have to always be productive.) None of my Aunts or Uncles read. None of my cousins. Neither of my sisters....

Oh, the old "If it's not productive, it's a waste of time" argument. I often see this argument made by people who... eehrr... don't have a lot of money to spend. It almost feels as if these people try to wave away any entertainment away as unnecessary, to hide the fact that they can't afford it. (Or even, are too lazy to go to the library and borrow books there, for the extreme sum of €0.2 a piece or so.)

Still, my sister, who is neither poor nor rich (just a normal, average working person, with a decent, neither very low nor very high salary), seems to regard almost every pastime as a waste of time, except for watching television for hours on end in the evening.

I often fear for my three year old niece, who is probably going to be much smarter than her mother (and father) if she gets the right encouragement to read and study, if her current intelligence and curiosity is an indication.

However, she probably won't touch a book before she's six and starts to read in school, because both her parents faint as soon as they have to read so much as half an a4 page of text. Their reading life consists of a 5 inch screen, with sentences of 140 characters or so, at most.

It's a pity they live too far away for (very) regular visits, otherwise I would try and take that part of my niece's upbringing in hand myself.

[geekaren]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

what about an option for parents who ENCOURAGED reading? My mother read to me every day after school and then when I discovered the library, my dad made sure to take us there on the weekends...

I need this option, too! My parents were both teachers and they were very supportive of my voracious reading. Example: Those times when I wanted to check out more library books (at a time) than my card would allow, they'd check out the rest on their card.

[susan_cassidy]

My parents always took us to the library (we certainly didn't have enough money to buy books regularly). I got a few paperbacks through a Scholastic Publishing deal at grade school, where you could buy some books fairly cheaply. However, they never monitored my reading (good for me, probably bad for them - if they only knew). They wouldn't have approved of the James Bond books, etc. if they had known what was in them.

[Xanthe]

LOL! I read those Jame Bond books, too. Pretty racy for my age group at the time. ~grin~

I absolutely loved whenever we got that new Scholastic book flyer in school and was able to order books from it. And when those orders came in - bliss! My niece and nephew both get them now in school, and when their book orders come in, there's total silence in the back of the car when I'm driving them home as they delve into their purchases.

@ Katsunami - Why don't you send your niece a gift box full of books for her age group, and do it on a regular basis? That way she has them in her hands, and you're not depending on her parents to take her to a book store as if you'd have sent a gift certificate.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

what about an option for parents who ENCOURAGED reading? My mother read to me every day after school and then when I discovered the library, my dad made sure to take us there on the weekends...

Agreed. My parents always encouraged me to read. I did get told a few times to turn out the light and go to sleep.

[kyteflyer]

I'm in the same boat as all those encouraged to read. My Mum read voraciously, and began reading to and with me before I started school. By the time I began, I could already read basic books (you know, "see spot run") and was busting to read more and more. I got my own library card at 5, and by the time I was 11 had read everything that interested me in the kids library, so my Dad gave me his card so I could get things from the Adult library. I was reading Steinbeck and Cronin by the time I was 12. Dad wasnt into reading that much but he always encouraged me to, as did Mum, and books were inevitably what was given at Christmas and birthdays.

[iaredam]

I never read as a child other than school assignments. I didn't start reading till a few years ago when I bought my first Kindle...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by twowheels

For no particular reason, this post got me to thinking about reading under the covers a child: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...4&postcount=57

I used to hide under the covers with the flashlight and read well past my bedtime, hoping not to get caught from light leaking around the edges. I was often in trouble with my parents who said that I needed to escape the fantasy world of books and live in the real world more.

So... it made me wonder... how about posters here? Did you have to sneak reading time? Did you read a lot? Did your parents feel that you read too much, not enough, or no opinion?

Edit: My 's' key seemed to have been stubborn when making the poll. Ooops. :-)

At best times (for me, not so much for my parents) I've read a book per day.
Between 9 and about 12 I've read the classics such as Robinson Crusoe (at least 6 or 8 times), Count of Monte Christo, Moby Dick and so on.
My parents liked it at first, but after a while especially my father "forced my out of the living room" to go play.
As always, you (in this case my parents) want what you don't have.
Most parents of my friends did envy my parents: "I wish my son would at least read a single book once in a while".
At the age of 11 or 12 my situation did escalate a bit. I had started to collect comics and books (quite successfully in trading and expanding my collection) and my mother threw out a few hundred comics, simply because I had occupied more or less every locker in the house.

I didn't read very often in bed, under the covers. I found it too inconvenient and already got my 5+ hours reading time in the afternoon.

I still have parts of my collection of paper books from those days in my cellar: At least 5.000 comics and about 1.000 paperbacks. Lots of them I had been buying second hand and I'm not touching them anymore. But I can't bring myself to throw them away either. I'd gladly give them to my 11 year old niece, but she finds reading absolutely boring - as her grammar and spelling unfortunately show.

[theducks]

I had a Neon (those orange glows) nightlight on an extension cord so I did not have to explain why the emergency flashlight was always dead.

[crossi]

My mother always read bedtime stories to me when I was young. Once I learned how to read myself her only concern was to remind me that I needed to sleep also. In grade school we were given lists of books each month that we could buy and she always gave me money to buy a couple. She enjoyed reading also and subscribed to the Readers Digest condensed books and often recommended stories in those that she thought I might like and found books at the library about things I was interested in like horses. Why in the world would any parent discourage a child from reading?

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by Xanthe

I absolutely loved whenever we got that new Scholastic book flyer in school and was able to order books from it.

Me, too! That brings back such fond childhood memories.

I've always loved books, and my parents were very encouraging when it came to reading. They were good role models in that regard, too. My father, in particular, was a very enthusiastic reader.

[rcentros]

There's really no choice for me. My Dad was a reader (when we were little he read to us every night) and he liked the fact that we also developed into readers.

[danskmacabre]

I was the youngest of 4 and the only boy.
I used to see my older 2 sisters read a lot (my 3rd sister didn't read much) and when I got to about 9 I suppose I asked my older sister for something to read.
After a couple of false starts such as "black beauty" and some other book I found utterly boring, she then gave me "The Hobbit" to read and I was hooked.

I remember reading a lot of Enid Blyton in those days too.

My parents, whilst they did read somewhat, didn't encourage or discourage me from reading, but then they were rarely present, as they were both out working very late hours most of the time, so I interacted with my older sisters more and picked up things from them more and as it happened, they read a lot, so then I did too.

[eschwartz]

My family is a bit of a mixed bag. I am the biggest reader, although my mother and sister read a fair bit too. My brothers are either uninterested in intellect or paranoid-religious-ocd. My father read the odd book, both my parents mainly stick to thrillers nowadays.

As a kid, I was encouraged to read -- but only the right books. My mother is still worried about my reading Sci-Fi/Fantasy, she thinks it's an excuse for escapism and would much rather me read thrillers. (She was the main arbiter of reading in our house.)
Also because my books might be dirty -- ironically the thrillers are more dirty than most of the books I read.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Apache

I still carry a book with me when I use the restroom.
Apache

I carry my Kindle so I have choices.

Can be helpful, at least in dire circumstances , and anyway I switch back and forth a lot. I'd rather not cut myself off even for ten minutes.