Why do you love to read? How did you first get into it?

[crossi]

Did any of you read the entire encyclopedia as a child? My family had a set and I used to enjoy flopping down on my bed and reading a volume. Did your family subscribe to Readers Digest Condensed Books? They were great and mostly had some pretty good selections. Did your grade school have the book selling program, might have been called Scholastic or something similar, where you could each month select some books to buy from a monthly catalog? I remember they were pretty inexpensive and my mother would let me pick out one or two each month. Do the grade schools still do this? Lots of options back then to start kids off reading early. I don't know if they are still around. The encyclopedias at least are gone.

[McGonigle]

In my early years, my mother read Donald Duck Magazine aloud for me. As soon as I could read myself and had graduated from cartoons to books, one of the first, if not the first book I read in my native language, Danish, at the age of 12, was Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A space Odyssey and that started my reading odyssey.

I pretty soon went on to reading books almost exclusively in the English language; My favourite authors were either English or American, and I wanted and still want the words as they were written by the author, not translated into a foreign language.

I've had spells where I've read more than usual, and spells reading less than usual and find that since I witched to e-books some ten years ago, I've been maintaining a high rate of books read, simply because they all fit into this wonderful and brilliant tiny device called an ereader and I don't have to worry about finding shelf space for new books.

[Nabeel]

Like a lot of previous contributors, I can't remember the time before I could read. I certainly could read before I went to school.

But most people seem to be ignoring the original question: WHY?

I think the first answer has got to be 'escape'. It is more complex than it sounds: often you escape into something, and then return to the 'real' world with new ideas, new desires, and that makes you interact with what you find around you in a different. But that thrill of escaping into another person's world is still a big part of the pleasure of reading for me.

[Tarana]

I always read, then had a brain injury. Took me 10 years to relearn how to read. Then started losing my eyesight. Discovered affordable ereader in 2008, which made a huge difference. Yes, I still listen to a lot of audiobooks, but it's great not to be tied to them. Unfortunately, still at risk of losing eyesight (think glaucoma), but I just make sure I have text-to-speech options.

Why did I read? Because I was bored. I didn't like TV all that much (Star Trek was already done and other Star Treks were year's in the future) and once we moved to another state, I didn't really have any friends until high school. We had no garden. I lived in a small town and there just wasn't anything else to do. After adulthood, moved to another state - again, didn't like TV much and didn't have the money for other entertainments.

[haertig]

I read when I was elementary, junior high, and early on in high school. The young reader stuff of those years long ago - Robert Heinlein, Andre Norton, etc. Then I kind of got away from reading for many years. I'd read sporadically. When I read, I'd love it and stay up well into the wee hours of the morning reading (mostly action/adventure novels at that time). But then I'd get away from reading for a year or so, then back into it, then away from it.

Now I read consistently. I'm not fast, but I read about every day. Still into the action/adventure stuff.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by crossi

Did any of you read the entire encyclopedia as a child? My family had a set and I used to enjoy flopping down on my bed and reading a volume. Did your family subscribe to Readers Digest Condensed Books? They were great and mostly had some pretty good selections. Did your grade school have the book selling program, might have been called Scholastic or something similar, where you could each month select some books to buy from a monthly catalog? I remember they were pretty inexpensive and my mother would let me pick out one or two each month. Do the grade schools still do this? Lots of options back then to start kids off reading early. I don't know if they are still around. The encyclopedias at least are gone.

Yup on encyclopedia and one of my grandmothers had a large selection of Reader's Digest Condensed. I believe I first encountered Dick Francis in one of those.

The Scholastic program sounds kind of familiar, but I don't really remember. Our library did do a summer reading program for kids. It was fairly structured, actually, you couldn't just read whatever you wanted, but had to read in quite a few different categories of books, fiction and non-fiction. I always did it and got my certificate though. It was not exactly a hardship to read more. 😁


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[graycyn]

As for why, escape, thirst for knowledge and I just love well used language. I am the type to stop and savor a really evocative sentence. Books aren't just about the stories. Though, now that I think of it, my grandfather used to make up and tell me great stories before bed, so loving written stories may also have grown out of that.


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[Alohamora]

Originally Posted by crossi

Did any of you read the entire encyclopedia as a child? My family had a set and I used to enjoy flopping down on my bed and reading a volume. Did your family subscribe to Readers Digest Condensed Books? They were great and mostly had some pretty good selections. Did your grade school have the book selling program, might have been called Scholastic or something similar, where you could each month select some books to buy from a monthly catalog? I remember they were pretty inexpensive and my mother would let me pick out one or two each month. Do the grade schools still do this? Lots of options back then to start kids off reading early. I don't know if they are still around. The encyclopedias at least are gone.

I didn't read the encyclopedia cover to cover, but I did flip through and read many articles, whatever seemed interesting at the time. I also sometimes did the same with a dictionary.

Why, I'm not sure. I think it was mostly from boredom and a need to keep my ADD brain active.

I remember when my mother first took me downtown to the main city library. I think it was in 1st grade.

I remember later when I was going to the local branch on my own, I tired of the Children's section and tried to check out adult books. I had to drag my mother back with me to sign something to get my library card authorized for the Adult section checkouts.

And I was a cereal box reader too.

[crich70]

Mom no doubt read to me and when I was 3 she took me to the library to get my own card. Of course I couldn't read back then but she would read them to me. I'm sure I drove her up the wall with all the Dr. Seuss books I borrowed from the library. I took part in the summer reading program at our local library every summer and always read more books than I had estimated that I would. Many is the night when she would say, "put down the book, turn out the light, and go to sleep." Like some others here I could probably start my own library as I have collected so many books over the years. Now days of course I buy more ebooks than paper ones. Thanks mom, I miss you.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by graycyn

There used to be a Bookmobile that came to our school to sell books, I saved all my money for that!

One of my early purchases was Sinbad and Me by Kin Platt. Great book!

Books were around at my grandparents' houses, tons of reading there. I loved visiting them because of that.

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I remember the little booklet flyer that the schools gave out when I was a kid. You could choose from a number of good books. One I (or rather my parents ) bought from such a flyer was Arthur Conan Doyle's "Hound of the Baskervilles." I first read it while visiting for a week or two with my paternal grandma one summer.

[Thasaidon]

I love reading for the stories. I have to be careful when editing ebooks so that I do not read too much of the book text or I get sucked into the story and stop editing.

I had a library card when I was about nine but forgot to take them back and had a big fine to pay (2 shillings about 24 us cents). I palled up with a lad at school a few months later who was a bookworm. It inspired me to save my pocket money until I could pay the fine and redeem my library card. Then having a friend/rival in the reading stakes I really started to get through some books and never really stopped.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by crossi

Did any of you read the entire encyclopedia as a child?

No. But I fondly remember sitting with my grandfather and being read to from a very old encyclopedia.
I loved those old books. We were browsing through one of thick volumes at random and when we got to an interesting illustration (I remember being fascinated by a Brontosaurus) or to an article that my grandfather found interesting enough we started reading. Then we might have followed an interesting link, or look up something tangentially related. It was not just reading, it was a small lecture - my grandpa was very educated and a very good teacher.

Much later I *have* read through an encyclopedia, but it was an encyclopedia of Greek gods, demigods and heroes.

Even today I often fall into the rabbit hole called Wikipedia ;-)

[BookCat]

Before I started school, I so desperately wanted to read that I'd hold books and move my eyes from side to side, much to the mirth of my sisters.

Later, when I was about seven, one of my sisters went to teacher training college with the intention of teaching English (which she did for 25 years). She came home at the weekends and during holidays and would tell me the Narnia stories from memory. She bought me Enid Blyton books - the Mystery series - which I loved and devoured. That began my love of reading. I still sometimes dip into Blyton, to remind me of that first love.

I go through reading phases where I read almost all the time, and slumps when I hardly touch a book or my kindle, but books are always part of my life.

[Nabeel]

Originally Posted by BookCat

Before I started school, I so desperately wanted to read that I'd hold books and move my eyes from side to side, much to the mirth of my sisters.

.

That's funny!

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by BookCat

Before I started school, I so desperately wanted to read that I'd hold books and move my eyes from side to side, much to the mirth of my sisters.

When I was a teeny-tiny thing my parents had a parlor trick. They'd hand me an text-only book upside-down and watch as I'd carefully turn it right-side up and hold it as if I was reading.

Actually learning to read didn't happen until I was in grade one but I always loved stories and knowing things. Books were and are a very good source of stories and knowledge also they are an invaluable way to fend off tedium. As a child I couldn't figure out how anyone managed without a good source of books for dreary moments.