What Makes a Reader

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by barryem

I was born before there was TV and I remember listening to the Saturday morning kids radio shows. A few of them had stories and they were what pulled me into them. I knew I loved stories before I learned to read and when I did learn to read I found a new way to enjoy stories.

That's always been what reading is all about for me. I want stories.

I still listen to old time radio shows (OTR) and my favorites are anthology series. That's true of early TV as well. There were a lot of anthology series on early TV and radio. They make up a big part of my collection and I listen to them more than to most shows. I approach reading in kind of the same way. I want every book to be a complete story that stands alone. If I have to read a series in order or read a second book to get the full story I'm not interested. Books are my favorite anthologies.

Barry

I've listened to some of the old radio shows and one that really stands out for me, "Sorry Wrong Number" with Agnes Moorehead presented by the Lux Radio Theater. It is so good. It's a simple story but it's one that really draws you in. I've also seen the move and the movie was nowhere near as good as the radio drama.

[maddz]

We didn't get a TV until 1963. Partly it was because we lived abroad until 1962, and partly because my father didn't want to watch it himself (he travelled a lot) and saw no point in spending money on something he'd barely use. We only got a TV because one of my great-aunts and her husband offered us their old one when they upgraded.

I expect I saw broadcasts prior to that walking along the street or at friend's houses, but nothing stuck in my mind. On the other hand, I was a constant reader from a very young age.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by maddz

We didn't get a TV until 1963. Partly it was because we lived abroad until 1962, and partly because my father didn't want to watch it himself (he travelled a lot) and saw no point in spending money on something he'd barely use. We only got a TV because one of my great-aunts and her husband offered us their old one when they upgraded.

I expect I saw broadcasts prior to that walking along the street or at friend's houses, but nothing stuck in my mind. On the other hand, I was a constant reader from a very young age.

I don't remember when we got a TV. But I do remember that as far back as I can remember, we always had a TV. I had a TV in my bedroom. My Dad came home one day with a Sony TV that had a remote control. It was one of the first TVs with a remote. It turned the dials. Clunk! Clunk! As the dial changed channel.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by issybird

I believe barryem is 79, which means he was born in 1940 or 1941. Commercial tv didn’t start in the US until July 1, 1941, and even then it was just in New York. So I take him at his word and don’t see the point of playing gotcha.

Even then, it was not uncommon for people not to have TV's even as late as the 50's and early 60's. Certainly if you were outside a major city, it was possible not to have a TV signal until that time period.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It was one of the first TVs with a remote. It turned the dials. Clunk! Clunk! As the dial changed channel.

A motor was turning the channel knob; what cutting edge technology.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Before 1935 electronic TV barryem?
Or before 1924 start of Mechanical TV after hours using broadcast transmitters.
USA had TV during WWII, but in UK it was turned off in September 1939.
My dad was born before Electronic TV, but didn't have a TV at home till about 1958.

BBC R4 still has some dramatised books on Radio as well as narrated books. Audio books have the biggest growth at over 20%.

I do think titles in a Series should be complete stories or else it's really a serial.

I was born in 1940. If there was TV in other places there wasn't in Texas, which we moved to when I was 5. I saw my first TV when we went to visit my grandmother in Connecticut. I think I was 9. I do know I was in the third grade. Prior to that summer I never heard of TV.

When we came back to Texas after that summer and I went back to school we had a science teacher who went from class to class giving science lectures and she told us about TV. She explained that there was a dot of light that moved across the screen and made you think you were seeing a picture but in fact there was no picture, and that the inevitable result of that was that in a few hours you would go blind. There still was no TV in Texas so nobody knew anything about it.

I raised my hand and explained that I'd watched a lot of TV that summer and I could see just fine. I was sent to the principal's office for contradicting her and when I argued about what I'd seen I was sent home and had to have my parents come talk to them before I could get back into school.

I'll be 80 in November and sure enough my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be so maybe she was right.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I've listened to some of the old radio shows and one that really stands out for me, "Sorry Wrong Number" with Agnes Moorehead presented by the Lux Radio Theater. It is so good. It's a simple story but it's one that really draws you in. I've also seen the move and the movie was nowhere near as good as the radio drama.

If you liked that the first episode of Radio City Playhouse was "Long Distance" starting Jan Miner. Like "Sorry Wrong Number" it became pretty famous.

Lux Radio Theater was movies brought to radio but in the case of "Sorry Wrong Number" it was a radio show first on "Suspense". Then it became a movie and then they did it on Lux Radio Theater.

These are a couple of maybe half a dozen radio shows that really stand out in my memory. I listen to "Long Distance" at least once a year. It's that good.

By the way, the star, Jan Miner, used to participate in an OTR listserve I was in and because she was there that show was talked about quite a bit. That was a couple decades ago so I don't recall anything that was said.

An interesting thing about Agnes Moorhead (the mother in Bewitched) was that she was in more OTR episodes than any other performer. Number two, and not a close second, was William Conrad, known as Canon on TV. He was also the original Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, which was on the radio a few years before it made it to TV.

Barry

[theducks]

Originally Posted by hobnail

A motor was turning the channel knob; what cutting edge technology.

Actually that was a later ADD-on (Zenith, I think. used a tuning fork clicker for channel))

The tuner was called a 'Turret Tuner". It had inserted strips with coils and capacitors that tuned the channel for the position. The clunk was the Cam that lock the position so good contact was made. ( There was a product called 'Tuner Tonic", that we used to clean the contacts when folk had to wiggle the Knob to get a steady signal)

I thought they were VHF channels only (2-6, 7-13) until I visited my Grandparents in Portland, OR. They had 2 strips in theirs for UHF stations (this was before TV's had the UHF Knob

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Science fiction and fantasy books can take you away from home and even away from Earth. You can go to other dimensions, other planets, other galaxies, other time (past and/or present), etc.

Are you done splitting hairs John? I'm well aware of SFF, but I read very little of those genres unless it is Star Trek or has a romance attached to it.

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by theducks

Actually that was a later ADD-on (Zenith, I think. used a tuning fork clicker for channel))

When I was in first grade there was a guy who lived upstairs in the apartments where we lived and his remote was a little red bulb that you squeezed and it made a silent dog whistle at the end chirp.

But I definitely remember the metal rod ones where a spring loaded hammer would hit them; one for channel and one for volume.

[jenieliser]

I agree with the early exposure theory, combined with reading the right genre/book....

I remember my mom taking me to library at least once a week, sometimes more. At the time she wasn't a big reader, neither was my dad. But I read everything I could-labels, signs, etc. I remember just being curious about everything.
But then in middle school I stopped reading so much. I didn't get back my voracious reading habits until freshman year of high school when my great aunt (always reading, walls and walls of books) gave me Pride and Prejudice. I stayed up all night reading by the light of a heater. I was once again hooked.
Ironically I suggested a book to my mom and now she is just as much reader as I am.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by jenieliser

I agree with the early exposure theory, combined with reading the right genre/book....

I remember my mom taking me to library at least once a week, sometimes more. At the time she wasn't a big reader, neither was my dad. But I read everything I could-labels, signs, etc. I remember just being curious about everything.
But then in middle school I stopped reading so much. I didn't get back my voracious reading habits until freshman year of high school when my great aunt (always reading, walls and walls of books) gave me Pride and Prejudice. I stayed up all night reading by the light of a heater. I was once again hooked.
Ironically I suggested a book to my mom and now she is just as much reader as I am.

I think you are right about the type of book making a difference. Like you, I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice but it's not everyone's cup of tea. (Especially not the typical teenage boy in a high school literature class. ) Many people on Mobileread are scifi fans but I haven't read any since I was a teenager - it's just not my area of interest.

I do think it's important that schools teach at least a few "classics" so everyone is exposed to them. However, I also think teachers should encourage students to explore different genres and find something that appeals to them so that reading is seen as something that can be enjoyable, not just something you have to slog through to meet school requirements.

[HLS]

I read a lot a a child then as an adult i went over 20 years never reading. got my first ereader Nook in 2010 and been reading ever since.

[paulag]

Hi all. Newbie here)

I was very lucky that my parents encouraged my reading habit. If there was a book I wanted, my parents rarely refused to buy it for me. My mom also loves sci-fi and was shoving books like Dune on me when I was 14. My parents had to buy me my own bookshelf to handle all the books I accumulated.

That kind of encouragement helped solidify my reading habit early on and cemented the fact that reading is a good use of free time.