What kindled your love of reading?

[Vincent Black]

When this thought occurred to me I asked my mum when I started reading, as I can remember being an avid reader from a very young age, and she revealed to me that when I was first learning to read and write I was much slower than the other kids (in fact my parents were apparently very worried that I might have dyslexia or some form of learning disability).

I think it might have been the knowledge that I wasn't as good as my friends that spurned me to put more effort into learning to read and write (even going so far as to borrowing a chinese-english dictionary from the library to learn how to read, why I chose a chinese-english dictionary is beyond me), so that by the time I was 12 I had finished the first nine books of the wheel of time.

So, enough of my egocentrism, what kindled your love of reading?

[mercymyqueen]

I was a shy child, and a very imaginative one. I was often reclusive. I can remember a cold recess in kindergarten or first grade when I had gloves where each finger was a puppet of Snow White or one of the dwarves and simply sitting around and playing with those in my head instead of being with the other kids.

This trend continued, and my T.V. did not have very many channels, so I read.

[Amylian]

I only learned to read a true literature when I had joined University and in the second year. I just do not know, the doctors there spellbounded me by literature as they had us read books that are considered "masterpieces" and the first one was "The Death of Ivan Ilych" which I am really fond of. Then I developed a liking towards literature and read lots of books and decided to become a writer.

[Tallon]

I'm not sure, i have always read. I read all my big brother's english books before i went to secondary school (To Kill A Mockingbird etc.). At 10-11 years old i couldn't of understood them all that well but i always enjoyed it.

I remember my english teacher asking if anyone had read Z For Zachariah and me and another kid raised our hands, and she asked us where we'd read it. He said in detention and i just said i don't know, i just have.

[mona amon]

I guess my mom encouraged me to read with beautiful picture books. Most of us kids used to read in those days- we didn't have TV!

[Cailin]

My mother used to read me a story at bedtime - and soon I wanted to read them to myself!

[livelaughlove]

I've always loved to read - even before I could read. My mom said when I was quite young, I would always carry around a reader's digest - you know, the magazine. This was even before I learned to read in school, but I guess I carried around for comfort? I did look at pictures somewhat. It progressed to a mini-series of children's books called Pony Pals and took off from there.

[Bitterfly]

My mother used to read me bedtime stories as well, and she taught me how to read when I was four. And both my parents are big readers, and big book collecters. I suppose that clinches it! But I was also somewhat of an introvert, being very shy and not exceedingly sociable, and I think I preferred books to people :D and books to real life. I still now sometimes (often, in fact!!) prefer lying around with a good book, or working on a good book, to going out and speaking about trifles with people I don't know well...

When getting my nose in a book
Cured most things short of school,
It was worth ruining my eyes
To know I could still keep cool,
And deal out the old right hook
To dirty dogs twice my size.

Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my coat and fangs
Had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.

Don't read much now: the dude
Who lets the girl down before
The hero arrives, the chap
Who's yellow and keeps the store
Seem far too familiar. Get stewed:
Books are a load of crap.

No, I don't agree with the last statement!:p But the first stanza pretty well sums up what reading was for me as a child...

[DaveB]

I was read to as a child, and enjoyed the stories. I had a great imagination. I was reading and printing when I was four. The first novel I read, at eight years of age, was "Beautiful Joe" (a dog story) and took months for me to complete. That struggle soured me on full length books for several years.

My older brother provided access to a limitless array of comic books. Chewing gum for my young brain. A needless distraction.

Luckily I had a few English teachers who re-kindled my interest in books.

[mickitaz]

I have always read as well.. even as a kid, I would prefer a book to going outside. I was an introvert, not having many friends. So books became my friends. As I progressed through school and life, the themes of my books would change. Now, as I am aproaching middle age; I am finding I am returning to the classics.

[mayneverhave]

Most likely it was my 9th grade English teacher - he at least sparked my interest in poetry (especially E.E. Cummings). Although my interest was hardly academic or serious, it was still there - which is more than you can say about most people.

I only began serious reading my freshman year of college when my British literature 1700-1900 class absolutely destroyed me. After that failure I took it upon myself to study the great works of literature.

[Petya]

I pretty much always liked reading books although for the most part I never really stuck with it until about 8 months ago when I stared reading books I wanted instead of choices from parents or teachers. When I found there were so many stories to immerse yourself in I haven't stopped reading. From Kerouac to Bronte I just haven't been able to get enough.

So I guess choice over force of reading is what kindled my love of reading.

[Trystan]

I'm not sure. I didn't read much when I was in school (I hated it, and I think not reading was an extension of that hatred), but eventually I just started reading more at about 15/16. Lots of political and philosophical stuff first, and then novels and more novels . . . but I think it may have been Orwell who sparked my interest, I read 1984 and it had a big effect on me, as did his other stuff.

[1n50mn14]

My mom, for sure... she always wove the most fantastic tales, and told wonderful stories based on those out of books. She's sit up and read with me from the time I was extremely young and bequeathed all of her books unto me... aha... as well, I used to do a lot of theatre and drama, and wanted to be on stage. But I had to be able to read the scripts. ;)

Also being vaguely obsessive, I like to hoard knowledge and facts and stories.

[Annamariah]

Love of reading runs in my family. I've grown up surrounded by books and my parents and grandparents used to read me aloud when I was a kid. I learned to read at the age of five (Thanks to my father, who taught me. In Finland kids start school at the age of seven, so I got a two-year head start in reading.) and ever since reading has been one of my favourite pastimes.

[andave_ya]

When I realized they take me places and introduce me to people who don't exist.

[crystalmoonshin]

I actually started to flip through books when I was around two or three years old. I loved the volume about dinosaurs of the Charlie Brown Encyclopedia so much that when I learned how to read at around age 5 or 6, I reread it a lot.

I wasn't much of a TV addict when I was young. I remember watching only the afternoon cartoons and anime. (And I'm still an anime fan.) SO during my free time, I would look for idle books at home, including my elder siblings' English textbooks which had lots of cool stories that I liked.

After reading every book I found at home, I turned to my mom's Bible, being infatuated with the Book of Revelations despite it giving me horrors up until now. I was around 7 years old then.

I became really serious when I was 9. That was when I started to conquer the library at school. I devoured shelves after shelves of books since we don't have many books at home because my parents do not support my love for reading. But we do have a set of Lexicon Encyclopedia and I got addicted to the entries about mythology and such.

I was in high school when I started reading classics, not the abridged types, I mean. My faves then were Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Louisa May Alcott.

Upon entering college, I borrowed lots of books, of which mostly were Japanese literature. And up until now, despite my hectic schedule in college where I'm a junior, I still squeeze in some time to read.

So what's the reason for this? I don't know either. Maybe it's just because of my love for books and learning.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Sheer luck or innate love of reading, I don't know. What I do know is that no one else brought me to reading, I did it myself, or chance brought me to it, one or the other. Unfortunately, my parents were not readers and therefore there were only about three books in our house when I was younger at the most so the possibility of being hooked young was never an option. There were always small sparks of interest when I was younger, bits at school, the odd book here and there, but it wasn’t until some relative dumped an old box of books he didn’t want at my dad’s house that I finally succumbed to the pull of the written word. From then I never looked back and have not been without a pile of books since the age of seventeen (I am now thirty).

For my children I have hundreds of children’s books in the house and my five-year-old is at least three years above her reading age. The 'mistakes' of the past have not been repeated.

[mayneverhave]

I actually started to flip through books when I was around two or three years old. I loved the volume about dinosaurs of the Charlie Brown Encyclopedia so much that when I learned how to read at around age 5 or 6, I reread it a lot.

Hah small world. I actually had that Charlie Brown Encyclopedia as well, I had one on the human body as well. I loved those two books, carried them around with me everywhere as a kid.

[bounty]

does more or less being rejected by humanity count??

just teasing...sorta...

[grace86]

For as long as I can remember I've loved reading. As a child it was children's books, as a young adult it was young adult reading...I pretty much stayed within the recommended reading. I think I was in 7th grade when they tested me and said I read at a 9th grade level. My dad has always read a lot, but my mom has always been supportive of it. I remember both of them reading with us all the time. Book clubs and book fairs and stuff like that were always frequented.

[LitNetIsGreat]

My dad has always read a lot, but my mom has always been supportive of it. I remember both of them reading with us all the time. Book clubs and book fairs and stuff like that were always frequented.

I think this is so important in a child's academic development, whether they make the subject of literature the centre of their study or not. I can't help thinking 'what if' in terms of my own personal development, what if I had gained a love of reading from the age of 7 and not 17? But that is life, it's no big deal in the end.

Anyway, forget me winging and writing about reading, (or playing words games at eastoftheweb.com/games word 8) I'm actually going to go and read the things.

[JBI]

Someone once told me that if I wanted to argue, I had to read more. So I read about 500 books in one year, and then arguing became rather easy with that person. Though, I think the first book I really loved reading was Eugene Onegin. That book simply took things beyond anything I could imagine literature to do.

[Pendragon]

I had little as a kid, but I had imagination, and I had books from the local library. The effect was akin to having a Genie grant my wishes. I fell in love then, and never lost the love for a good book. :nod:

[Emil Miller]

I started reading at about five or six, I can`t remember exactly as it was so long ago, but I do recall that my teacher in the infants school got excited about a little poem that I wrote at that time and took me to show it to the headmistress. At that age I thought the alphabet was a form of magic; I actually still do. I have a number of Chinese friends and I have occasionally pointed out to them the incredible power of our 26 letters as opposed to the thousands of characters they require to read and write.
So I guess what started me reading was a sense of the magical power of words.
As a boy I was never without a book, but I wasn`t reclusive as I also spent a good deal of time playing with the other kids in the neighbourhood.
Like most children, one of my favourite places was the local sweetshop but another was the local library which was even better because all the books were free. I got through most of the standard childrens books of the day and even travelled to other boroughs when I had exhausted my local library`s stock.
When I moved on to more mature reading I was able to use the the adult`s section but as paperbacks began to take over hardbacks I ceased going to the library and started to buy books for myself.
The book I am currently reading isn`t readily available in UK bookstores so I have purchased it from a print on demand company; it is all a lot different from when I first stated reading.

[grace86]

I had little as a kid, but I had imagination, and I had books from the local library. The effect was akin to having a Genie grant my wishes. I fell in love then, and never lost the love for a good book. :nod:

I love that genie bit! You can do anything with reading!

Hmm..now I want to read Eugene Onegin..JBI you inspired me!

[amalia1985]

I think that all those beautiful tales and myths that my grandmother used to narrate to me were the starting point. Furthermore, I remember that when I was about 5 years old, I asked my mother something about my name, and she told me that it was a name taken from her favourite book. I believe that this was an "alarm" for me back then too, but I would give the main credit to my grandmother's tales.

[Neha Khan]

Well I was quite an imaginative child, even at the age of four I remember I had a strong power of forming mental images of whatever I read. Whenever my mom gave me a book to read the imagery and symbolism in the writings used to stimulate my senses extremely, so much so that in no time I would find myself in the storyland amongst the characters, which is why I still find reading far more exciting and interesting than any other activity.

[Joreads]

I was always read to as a child and I am pretty head strong so I wanted to learn to read for myself. I was reading even before I went to school. The habit stuck and I still read to this day it is simply something that I love.

[Kevets]

Two things for me: my mother (an English teacher) had me in some experimental reading program called ITA - initial teaching alphabet. She took masking tape and rewrote kids books in that script. So I could start reading these at age 4 or so.

And then in 5th grade I went to check out a Sherlock Holme's from the school library. The librarian said "oh, honey, you should leave that for an older kid who would understand it." I dug my heels in and took it home. I sat at the kitchen table and each new word (about 20 per page) I would ask my mother the meaning of - and she tirelessly and patiently explained them to me.

Later that week, we were on the train together. I asked her - "what does 'prophylactic' mean?" She colored but told me it meant a protective measure. I knew from her blush that there was more to this word, and I think that's what sparked my lifelong love of vocabulary and reading.

[crystalmoonshin]

I think this is so important in a child's academic development, whether they make the subject of literature the centre of their study or not. I can't help thinking 'what if' in terms of my own personal development, what if I had gained a love of reading from the age of 7 and not 17? But that is life, it's no big deal in the end.



Yeah, I think so, too. I used to envy my classmates who can afford to buy a cartful of books at the bookstore. I have a friend whose family loves to read and I borrow from her. I think parents really ought to be supportive of what their kids want but of course, with certain limitations. I see nothing wrong with a child's love for books so I don't quite understand why my parents hinder me from buying books. (I actually have to hide them in my bedroom.)

But that's all in the past now. All I can do is take every opportunity to read the books I've wanted to read. So I borrow as often as I can from our college library.