How did you start reading? - Page 4

ShortNCuddlyAm · 02-16-2010, 08:38 AM

The first books I remember reading were Ladybird Classics - highly abridged, illustrated fairy tales in small board-bound books, which I devoured both figuratively and literally (well, only the corners of the covers literally). Which of those got me started, I can't say (possibly either The Magic Porridge Pot or Rapunzel, as those stick most in my mind even now), but by the time I started primary school I was reading well ahead of my age, and reading anything and everything I could lay my hands on (which was rather a lot), including the family dictionary (about the size of a ream of A4 paper, beautifully bound and illustrated, and possibly repsonsible for making me appreciate books as beautiful objects), James Herriott and the usual suspects such as Peter Pan; Alice in Wonderland; The Lion, The Witch and The Wardobe; Stig of The Dump; Enid Blyton's Famous Five; Ruby Ferguson's Jill series and Patricia Leitch's Jinny series (which I blame for a lot). Oh, and any and every book of Arthurian myth (I think it started with Roger Lancelyn Green's books, went on to T H White and from there Mallory) and Celtic myth I could find.

banjomike · 02-16-2010, 09:03 AM

I don't ever remember NOT reading.

At age 4 I got a huge (to a 4 year old) encyclopedia for christmas.

I was known to the librarians in the town library (adult section) while still at junior school. I used to get the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings every two weeks, read it all, then renew it on my parents library tickets. This went on for about 3 years. Then my parents bought the books for christmas. The adult library gave me my own set of adult tickets, along with warnings not go near the Mills and Boon section. Good advice which I still follow to this day.

One day the headmaster at school, a nasty, groping piece of work, decided that the school library was not going to have any fiction any more. He said it was too small. Naturally us kids had no say in the matter. On the due day we all brought the books we had on loan and they were put in bin bags and taken to the town tip. Except the ones I had. I rescued them and still have them to this day. "Sea Gold" by John Blaine is one of them, a really old well read book.

lovelyloey · 02-16-2010, 09:46 AM

Before I went to grade school I didn't read a lot. Somehow at grade 3 I had a reading spurt and inhaled things like Judy Blume (Are you there God? It's me Margaret), Paula Danzinger, Sweet Valley series and the Sweet Dreams series. I would sit at the library for hours during the weekends to read those books and then borrow some. Those were my fondest childhood reading memories. I'm sure I started reading earlier, but I don't recall those bits.

JSWolf · 02-16-2010, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Find Dick

Jane said, “I see you. I see you, Sally. I can find you. I can not find Dick. Help me, Sally. Come here. Help me find Dick.”

Jane said, “Oh, Father. I can not find Dick. And we can not play. Help me, father. Help me find Dick.”

Father said, “Look, Jane. Look, look, look. You can find Dick.”

Sally said, “Oh, oh. I see Dick now. Father and I see Dick. We see funny Dick. Look, Jane, look. You can find Dick now.”

Reprinted in The World of Dick and Jane and Friends.

I read several of those stories out loud to my wife and neither of us could keep a straight face!

That can be taken in so many wrong ways.

DoctorOhh · 02-16-2010, 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by banjomike

I don't ever remember NOT reading.

The first novel I read for enjoyment was after I finished high school, but my three kids can't remember a time when they weren't reading for enjoyment.

banjomike · 02-16-2010, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwanthny

The first novel I read for enjoyment was after I finished high school

My neighbours are proud of the fact that don't have any books in their house.

None.

They also had strange looks when I showed them my collection of 2000+

Harryplopper · 02-16-2010, 11:25 PM

The first books I read for fun were Ringworld by Larry Niven and The Dead Zone by Stephen King. I borrowed both from my mom's book collection when I was around 12.

GA Russell · 02-17-2010, 12:23 AM

Am's post reminded me of the many books I had as a toddler in the early 50s of the Ding Dong School series. One I remember was a story of a boy who had coal delivered to his house! Another was called "I Decided". It was about a girl who went to the store and chose between a toy truck and a doll and picked the doll. She was most happy about the fact that she made a choice.

Francesco · 02-17-2010, 12:46 AM

I was a rebellious teen, so I grabbed "no one here gets out alive," Jim Morrison's biography. Or did I become a rebellious teen after reading it? I don't remember.
Anyway, I think it was a great book to start: in it, Morrison is depicted as a very intelligent reader who could even understand Thus spoke Zarathustra. Needless to say, I read TSZ more than once and I still don't understand it!

lene1949 · 02-17-2010, 01:57 AM

My parents didn't read books... They had an encyclopedia.. We read comics, until one Christmas, when I was 12... My main present was a book! It was called Nøglepigen (the Key Girl - This was in Denmark). I spent the next week reading it... I couldn't believe I owned a book! From then on I wasn't happy to read from the library... I needed the books in my hot little hands for keeps...

Ea · 02-17-2010, 05:38 AM

The first book I read was "Børnene i Bulderby" ('Children of Noisy Village' I think is the English title) by Astrid Lindgren. I learned to read very quickly when I started first grade (at 7), so my parents got me this book. Astrid Lindgren is an extremely popular children's fiction author in Scandinavia. I think I had all her books. And then, at that age I was also taught to go to the library, and they had a huge selection of comics. Asterix and Co. is the first I remember.

But before I could read, I would often look at the images in an encyclopedia and a reference book about about organic gardening that had lots of fascinating drawings in it.

gbermor · 02-19-2010, 09:59 AM

Dr. Seuss, American Girl books and Anne of Green Gables

Xenophon · 02-19-2010, 11:00 AM

I cannot remember when I learned to read. I'm told that I was taught by my grandmother over the summer just after I turned three, and that my first book was a pictures-with-a-few-words book titled "Kit Cat." I don't actually remember any of this. My earliest memories of reading are of reading the first of Lloyd Alexander's "Prydain" series and "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" at age 5 (or so). Followed shortly by an "All-about" book on the U.S. space program.

I also share with an earlier poster those fond memories of the SRA reading series in grade-school. We had those from grades 2-5. I tested off their reading scale by 2nd grade, so the SRA system meant that I only had to finish off the silver and gold levels each year—which took about a week—and then I could read whatever I wanted during that period for the entire rest of the year!!!!

That was a wonderful way for reading class to work. It beat the pants off of the "See spot run" stuff we had in my 1st-grade class.

Xenophon

Tattncat · 02-19-2010, 11:15 AM

I was in a car accident when I was eight and as a result confined to the house/bed for a number of weeks. The only reading material available was her set of Harvard Classics. The first book I picked out I didn't comprehend well, but read anyway was Dante's Inferno. After that still within the Harvard Classics, I read and enjoyed; Grimm's Fairytales and a Thousand and One Nights, Two Years before the Mast, then it was Thomas Moore (at eight yrs of age I thought Thomas Moore was hilarious) from that I went to the three volumes of Elizabethan Classics, by then I was allowed to go to the local library where I checked out, the more appropriate Box Car twins.

After that I washooked on reading.

jes1 · 02-19-2010, 11:49 AM

I don't remember a time I didn't read. I know some of my favorites as a child were The Black Stallion, Nancy Drew, and Dr. Seuss. I started reading my older sister's romance novels when I was around 11 or 12, which did not really please my parents.

I discovered the Lord of the Rings at 14, which started my obsession with fantasy and
sci-fi. My parents were much happier with that until they saw how much money my reading habit cost.

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02-16-2010, 08:38 AM	#46
ShortNCuddlyAm WWHALD Posts: 7,879 Karma: 337114 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Mitcham, Surrey, UK Device: iPad. Selling my silver 505 here	The first books I remember reading were Ladybird Classics - highly abridged, illustrated fairy tales in small board-bound books, which I devoured both figuratively and literally (well, only the corners of the covers literally). Which of those got me started, I can't say (possibly either The Magic Porridge Pot or Rapunzel, as those stick most in my mind even now), but by the time I started primary school I was reading well ahead of my age, and reading anything and everything I could lay my hands on (which was rather a lot), including the family dictionary (about the size of a ream of A4 paper, beautifully bound and illustrated, and possibly repsonsible for making me appreciate books as beautiful objects), James Herriott and the usual suspects such as Peter Pan; Alice in Wonderland; The Lion, The Witch and The Wardobe; Stig of The Dump; Enid Blyton's Famous Five; Ruby Ferguson's Jill series and Patricia Leitch's Jinny series (which I blame for a lot). Oh, and any and every book of Arthurian myth (I think it started with Roger Lancelyn Green's books, went on to T H White and from there Mallory) and Celtic myth I could find.

02-16-2010, 09:03 AM	#47
banjomike Addict Posts: 319 Karma: 397404 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: UK Device: PRS-505,DSlibris,nook Glow & HD+,Tab S2,Moon+,Clara,Clara Colour	I don't ever remember NOT reading. At age 4 I got a huge (to a 4 year old) encyclopedia for christmas. I was known to the librarians in the town library (adult section) while still at junior school. I used to get the three volumes of The Lord of the Rings every two weeks, read it all, then renew it on my parents library tickets. This went on for about 3 years. Then my parents bought the books for christmas. The adult library gave me my own set of adult tickets, along with warnings not go near the Mills and Boon section. Good advice which I still follow to this day. One day the headmaster at school, a nasty, groping piece of work, decided that the school library was not going to have any fiction any more. He said it was too small. Naturally us kids had no say in the matter. On the due day we all brought the books we had on loan and they were put in bin bags and taken to the town tip. Except the ones I had. I rescued them and still have them to this day. "Sea Gold" by John Blaine is one of them, a really old well read book.

02-16-2010, 09:46 AM	#48
lovelyloey Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 40 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Singapore Device: Sony PRS 600	Before I went to grade school I didn't read a lot. Somehow at grade 3 I had a reading spurt and inhaled things like Judy Blume (Are you there God? It's me Margaret), Paula Danzinger, Sweet Valley series and the Sweet Dreams series. I would sit at the library for hours during the weekends to read those books and then borrow some. Those were my fondest childhood reading memories. I'm sure I started reading earlier, but I don't recall those bits.

02-16-2010, 11:25 PM	#52
Harryplopper Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ky, USA Device: Sony PRS600	The first books I read for fun were Ringworld by Larry Niven and The Dead Zone by Stephen King. I borrowed both from my mom's book collection when I was around 12.

02-17-2010, 12:23 AM	#53
GA Russell What a weekend! Posts: 7,697 Karma: 31487351 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite	Am's post reminded me of the many books I had as a toddler in the early 50s of the Ding Dong School series. One I remember was a story of a boy who had coal delivered to his house! Another was called "I Decided". It was about a girl who went to the store and chose between a toy truck and a doll and picked the doll. She was most happy about the fact that she made a choice.

02-17-2010, 12:46 AM	#54
Francesco Aficionado Posts: 391 Karma: 710 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Denver, CO, USA Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Touch	I was a rebellious teen, so I grabbed "no one here gets out alive," Jim Morrison's biography. Or did I become a rebellious teen after reading it? I don't remember. Anyway, I think it was a great book to start: in it, Morrison is depicted as a very intelligent reader who could even understand Thus spoke Zarathustra. Needless to say, I read TSZ more than once and I still don't understand it!

02-17-2010, 01:57 AM	#55
lene1949 Wizard Posts: 1,952 Karma: 213930 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Middelfart, Denmark Device: Kindle paper white	My parents didn't read books... They had an encyclopedia.. We read comics, until one Christmas, when I was 12... My main present was a book! It was called Nøglepigen (the Key Girl - This was in Denmark). I spent the next week reading it... I couldn't believe I owned a book! From then on I wasn't happy to read from the library... I needed the books in my hot little hands for keeps...

02-17-2010, 05:38 AM	#56
Ea Wizard Posts: 3,490 Karma: 5239563 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Denmark Device: Kindle 3\|iPad air\|iPhone 4S	The first book I read was "Børnene i Bulderby" ('Children of Noisy Village' I think is the English title) by Astrid Lindgren. I learned to read very quickly when I started first grade (at 7), so my parents got me this book. Astrid Lindgren is an extremely popular children's fiction author in Scandinavia. I think I had all her books. And then, at that age I was also taught to go to the library, and they had a huge selection of comics. Asterix and Co. is the first I remember. But before I could read, I would often look at the images in an encyclopedia and a reference book about about organic gardening that had lots of fascinating drawings in it.

02-19-2010, 09:59 AM	#57
gbermor Enthusiast Posts: 30 Karma: 74190 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Puerto Rico Device: Sony PRS-300, Kindle/SO	Dr. Seuss, American Girl books and Anne of Green Gables

02-19-2010, 11:00 AM	#58
Xenophon curmudgeon Posts: 1,487 Karma: 5748190 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Redwood City, CA USA Device: Kobo Aura HD, (ex)nook, (ex)PRS-700, (ex)PRS-500	I cannot remember when I learned to read. I'm told that I was taught by my grandmother over the summer just after I turned three, and that my first book was a pictures-with-a-few-words book titled "Kit Cat." I don't actually remember any of this. My earliest memories of reading are of reading the first of Lloyd Alexander's "Prydain" series and "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" at age 5 (or so). Followed shortly by an "All-about" book on the U.S. space program. I also share with an earlier poster those fond memories of the SRA reading series in grade-school. We had those from grades 2-5. I tested off their reading scale by 2nd grade, so the SRA system meant that I only had to finish off the silver and gold levels each year—which took about a week—and then I could read whatever I wanted during that period for the entire rest of the year!!!! That was a wonderful way for reading class to work. It beat the pants off of the "See spot run" stuff we had in my 1st-grade class. Xenophon

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02-19-2010, 11:15 AM	#59
Tattncat Bookworm Posts: 673 Karma: 1029391 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA Device: Nook Tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab3, Sony PRS700, Sony PRS505	I was in a car accident when I was eight and as a result confined to the house/bed for a number of weeks. The only reading material available was her set of Harvard Classics. The first book I picked out I didn't comprehend well, but read anyway was Dante's Inferno. After that still within the Harvard Classics, I read and enjoyed; Grimm's Fairytales and a Thousand and One Nights, Two Years before the Mast, then it was Thomas Moore (at eight yrs of age I thought Thomas Moore was hilarious) from that I went to the three volumes of Elizabethan Classics, by then I was allowed to go to the local library where I checked out, the more appropriate Box Car twins. After that I washooked on reading.

02-19-2010, 11:49 AM	#60
jes1 Zealot Posts: 139 Karma: 698 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Texas Device: Astak EZReader, Dell Axim x50v, iPod Touch, nook	I don't remember a time I didn't read. I know some of my favorites as a child were The Black Stallion, Nancy Drew, and Dr. Seuss. I started reading my older sister's romance novels when I was around 11 or 12, which did not really please my parents. I discovered the Lord of the Rings at 14, which started my obsession with fantasy and sci-fi. My parents were much happier with that until they saw how much money my reading habit cost.