When I was 5 years old, I think. I started to run away from reality into books, as I was a victim of a domestic violence for 18 years. Books helped me very much to go through all of this shit.
I can’t remember not being surrounded by books. I signed my name at 3 to get my first library card. My grandmother instilled the value of books in my mother, so she started that with me from day one pretty much.
I never read much as a teenager – over summer vacation in college I picked up Danielle Steele’s No Greater Love and was an instant book addict. Still my favorite book to reread!
I started reading at 3. I had thrown a huge fit because I couldn’t read yet. My parents read all the time, and instituted a daily reading time, and I have been an avid reader since.
I was an only child and my parents were very overprotective, so I was by myself a lot. I learned to read chapter books before kindergarten because I just needed to have company, which books provided. Even when I wasn’t reading, I was playing in the garden telling myself stories out loud (much to amusement of my grandpa).
I was 6 and I started sounding out things and reading road signs. It surprised the hell out of my parents. My dad would read books like The Secret Garden and Black Beauty and Aesops Fables to me before bed and I started looking at the books, which didn’t have any pics, and just looking at the words I couldn’t understand.
As long as I can remember. My parents read to me every night and I carried on. Was my clutch in my teenager year suffering from depression, insomnia etc. My mum took everything away and tried everything to make me sleep but nothing worked. So she let me read books if I couldn’t sleep. I’d read a book a night and mum would find me asleep with a book on me. My mental health went side ways and I stopped doing anything tbh.
Then started reading again on and of the past two years. This year I’m doing good, 10 books down. Helps me cope with my mental health, and chronic pain etc and I review/blog as well.b
We did the same for my baby brother. He’s 11 now and is reading Enid Blyton set which I bought him.
And he loves crime/ medical books like me so if I read a book and its light I pass it along to him. He’s reading way way above his age group he’s read every book in school. He takes his own books in now lol
He’s a massive gamer/computer geek. And he was getting to obsessed. So I reintroduced him to books. Now I get texts from him telling me he’s bought this book and that book lol or can I order a book for him on my kindle etc He has the app on his tablet and he has his own folder.
I don’t ever remember NOT reading. Some of my earliest memories of chapter books were reading the Bobsey Twins series and Little House on the Prairie books. I have a feeling that I’m much older than you, lol!
Same here!! But, my real love came when our 4th grade teacher read Little House in the Big Woods to us and told us if we wanted to know more about the little girls and family we would have to read the rest of the books ourselves!
I’m not sure, but very young. So young that my grandmother and mom thought I was lying when I told them I could read. My mom yelled at me for lying, handed me a book and said read this, so I opened it and did. Her mouth hit the floor, lol. I wasnt in preschool yet is all I know. But then they started getting me books at the library, which I was thrilled about. I recall Through the Looking Glass and A Wrinkle in Time as the first books I picked at the library. My grandma thought I had a brain tumor or something ?
@Dianna ahah I had a similar story, but a little backwards. When I was really really little, like age 2, I’d memorised my favourite picture book and my grandma fully thought I was possessed. Then they took the book out of my hands and I kept happily ‘reading’ to myself.
Was in 3rd grade and a horrible reader. At parent/teacher conference my teacher told my mother “get that child a library card!”. After that I was at the bookmobile every Thursday after school and haven’t stopped since.
When I was about 5-6 in early primary school… My dad is an avid reader and he worked night shift at the time and I went to an afternoon school. Every morning he took me with him to a local library nearby our home and “dumped me” ? in the children section whilst he walked off to the adult section. I was then left in the children section for the whole morning, for at least about 2-3 hours then he went home with me and cooked me lunch and I was off to school. I remember most days were like this and I read many books on my own. Because of this I love libraries. In my secondary school days I used to spend a whole day in a library and still do wherever I have time. I found it one of a very effective ways to bring up a reader is to dump the kid in a library ?.
When I was 6 years old. I was a terrible reader so my teacher had me take a reading class and after the year was almost over she took us to Books-A-Million and let the students pick out one book. I ended up picking up the first book in the Magic Tree House series and I’ve been hooked on reading since.
When I was around 4, I wasn’t allowed to watch tv during the school year so I read books. My dad bought me the series of the babysitters club. Of course I read like the books I could read at the time first and I absolutely loved casting actors and actresses in my head. At times I also loved putting myself as one of the characters ? it was a movie in my head and so I’d read all the time up until I graduated high school. I still read but since I’m in college, I’m trying to make time but it can be difficult. I thought I was the only kid whose parents wouldn’t let me watch tv during the school year. Back then I could only watch in the summer.
Growing up, my mom would read. I’d watch her fall completely into a book. She’d warn my sister and I that she was going to read and we should not bother her unless it was an emergency. I watch her get so caught up in the book, and I wanted to know what that felt like! I read a book about Martha Washington in 4th grade, and I was so awed by her. I understood why my mom was so sucked into books. I was a goner from that moment on.
In elementary school I struggled with reading but then we did this bookworm where every time I read a book I got to color a picture on a circle and watch the worm grow as we taped them up and after so many books I would get a prize. Well I’m trying to get all these prizes I found book series that I really liked (Magic Tree House, Bailey School Kids Mysteries, Goosebumps) and I kept reading. Eventually my reading level shot up so I was ahead of the class instead of behind it. That led to me being grounded from books because there was nothing else to take away from me when I was in trouble.
I got into reading when I was in primary school (many moons ago ?) and we had a read-a-thon competition to see whom could read the most books. I was hooked after that ?
I love to read books since when I was in elementary, and I can still remember the time with great clarity when I won the “best story telling.” Award during my elem. Days 🙂
We just always read at my house. Listening to my father read to us is one of my earliest memories, and soon I could follow along. I am almost 60, but I can still hear Dad’s voice when I read Rikki Tikki Tavi, Tom Sawyer or Treasure Island.
The Magic Treehouse and Junie B. Jones were the first two series that I got into. By grade 1, I remember reading Little House in the Big Woods and loving it. My mother was always a big reader and so she taught me fairly early and always supplied me with a large collection of whatever it was I was into. My grandmother also fueled my addiction as she instilled into my mind the philosophy of never feeling guilty for spending money on books because the knowledge gained from them is priceless.
My parents read stories to me from when I was born and I’m so grateful. I was desperate to be able to read before I could and used to carry a bag of books around with me and pretend to be reading ?. My mum made me a special book bag which I still have. In high school I got incredibly depressed and couldn’t read for a few years, but I managed to get back into it last year and am lovingly it ❤️
I started looking at magazines at 4 years of age. No one read to me. We had no books at home. In kindergarten I was given a book at Xmas time. By that summer I taught myself to read. Never stopped. My mother thought reading was a waste of time. I would finish my chores in summer and read in backyard. If Mom caught me new chores appeared along with a stern command to not read.
I remember always being able to read fast so I would just devour books.. In school I’d read til the end of the book when the rest of the class was still only in the middle chapters. But I remember my dad would always take me to the bookstore (Borders!) on the weekends, that was our bonding time. He’d get coffee and read newspapers and I’d browse different books and read at the store while we ate at the Cafe 🙂 that probably helped open my world of books up tremendously
Both my parents loved to read. I am a product of the Dick and Jane learn to read. But know reading with my mother set me on the path to loving reading.
We lived in a rural area with no other kids nearby. My parents were older when I was born (40 &50) AND I was hyperactive with a wild imagination. Books entertained and calmed me, giving them a much needed respite.
Loved it as a kid and honestly can’t remember my first book or why I picked it up. Loved reading until I hit adolescence then stopped. Started again with Made Men by Greg Smith after my Dad turned me onto the Sopranos TV show. Real life Mafia books turned into American History and science, politics then I discovered Hunter S Thompson, Charles Bukowski and finally Stephen King. Reading has helped me with substance abuse issues for years now
I had a very unorthodox, often isolated, childhood. Fortunately I attended an independent school district whose philosophy pushed reading and English over math and science. Funny how we all seemed to do quite well in math and science once we’d primed our brains.
When I was younger my grandma was a big reader and so when I started school I used to come home with library books and we would always sit down and she would read one side of the book and I would read the other! I also used to go with her to this little book store that she loved to go to and we would get my favorite books Berenstein bears! ?
My grandma who raised me would buy me little golden books and read to me at night time before I went to bed. I loved them little books I had so many of them.
I was very sick when I was little and almost went blind. While I was recovering my mom bought the first Harry Potter book for me. I’ve been hooked ever since ?
When I was 5 years old, I think. I started to run away from reality into books, as I was a victim of a domestic violence for 18 years. Books helped me very much to go through all of this shit.
God bless!
I can’t remember not being surrounded by books. I signed my name at 3 to get my first library card. My grandmother instilled the value of books in my mother, so she started that with me from day one pretty much.
I’ve been obsessed with reading since I learned to read. I think it was a way to deal with my parents divorce and my anxiety.
I don’t remember not wanting to read
I never read much as a teenager – over summer vacation in college I picked up Danielle Steele’s No Greater Love and was an instant book addict. Still my favorite book to reread!
I started reading at 3. I had thrown a huge fit because I couldn’t read yet. My parents read all the time, and instituted a daily reading time, and I have been an avid reader since.
I was an only child and my parents were very overprotective, so I was by myself a lot. I learned to read chapter books before kindergarten because I just needed to have company, which books provided. Even when I wasn’t reading, I was playing in the garden telling myself stories out loud (much to amusement of my grandpa).
I was 6 and I started sounding out things and reading road signs. It surprised the hell out of my parents. My dad would read books like The Secret Garden and Black Beauty and Aesops Fables to me before bed and I started looking at the books, which didn’t have any pics, and just looking at the words I couldn’t understand.
As long as I can remember. My parents read to me every night and I carried on. Was my clutch in my teenager year suffering from depression, insomnia etc. My mum took everything away and tried everything to make me sleep but nothing worked. So she let me read books if I couldn’t sleep. I’d read a book a night and mum would find me asleep with a book on me. My mental health went side ways and I stopped doing anything tbh.
Then started reading again on and of the past two years. This year I’m doing good, 10 books down. Helps me cope with my mental health, and chronic pain etc and I review/blog as well.b
We did the same for my baby brother. He’s 11 now and is reading Enid Blyton set which I bought him.
And he loves crime/ medical books like me so if I read a book and its light I pass it along to him.
He’s reading way way above his age group he’s read every book in school. He takes his own books in now lol
He’s a massive gamer/computer geek. And he was getting to obsessed. So I reintroduced him to books. Now I get texts from him telling me he’s bought this book and that book lol or can I order a book for him on my kindle etc
He has the app on his tablet and he has his own folder.
My Dad read to me…and my Babysitter read Jane Eyre to me when I was 7 because it was her HS book report assignment…I was hooked.
I don’t ever remember NOT reading. Some of my earliest memories of chapter books were reading the Bobsey Twins series and Little House on the Prairie books. I have a feeling that I’m much older than you, lol!
@Marci Right there with you!
Same here!! But, my real love came when our 4th grade teacher read Little House in the Big Woods to us and told us if we wanted to know more about the little girls and family we would have to read the rest of the books ourselves!
I moved to a hicktown in KY in 7th grade and no one liked me (city girl) so books became my friend
I’m not sure, but very young. So young that my grandmother and mom thought I was lying when I told them I could read. My mom yelled at me for lying, handed me a book and said read this, so I opened it and did. Her mouth hit the floor, lol. I wasnt in preschool yet is all I know. But then they started getting me books at the library, which I was thrilled about. I recall Through the Looking Glass and A Wrinkle in Time as the first books I picked at the library. My grandma thought I had a brain tumor or something ?
@Dianna ahah I had a similar story, but a little backwards. When I was really really little, like age 2, I’d memorised my favourite picture book and my grandma fully thought I was possessed. Then they took the book out of my hands and I kept happily ‘reading’ to myself.
Was in 3rd grade and a horrible reader. At parent/teacher conference my teacher told my mother “get that child a library card!”. After that I was at the bookmobile every Thursday after school and haven’t stopped since.
When I was about 5-6 in early primary school… My dad is an avid reader and he worked night shift at the time and I went to an afternoon school. Every morning he took me with him to a local library nearby our home and “dumped me” ? in the children section whilst he walked off to the adult section. I was then left in the children section for the whole morning, for at least about 2-3 hours then he went home with me and cooked me lunch and I was off to school. I remember most days were like this and I read many books on my own. Because of this I love libraries. In my secondary school days I used to spend a whole day in a library and still do wherever I have time. I found it one of a very effective ways to bring up a reader is to dump the kid in a library ?.
When I was 6 years old. I was a terrible reader so my teacher had me take a reading class and after the year was almost over she took us to Books-A-Million and let the students pick out one book. I ended up picking up the first book in the Magic Tree House series and I’ve been hooked on reading since.
When I was around 4, I wasn’t allowed to watch tv during the school year so I read books. My dad bought me the series of the babysitters club. Of course I read like the books I could read at the time first and I absolutely loved casting actors and actresses in my head. At times I also loved putting myself as one of the characters ? it was a movie in my head and so I’d read all the time up until I graduated high school. I still read but since I’m in college, I’m trying to make time but it can be difficult. I thought I was the only kid whose parents wouldn’t let me watch tv during the school year. Back then I could only watch in the summer.
I don’t remember ever not being into reading but I absolutely loved Beverly Cleary in 3rd grade . Ribsy was the first one I read .
@Kay I loved those too
My daddy taught me to read at age 3 (Little Bear ❤️) I dont remember NOT reading!!
No TV growing up made me into a reader/writer from the word go.
I don’t remember not reading. My mother was a member of Doubleday book club in the 50’s, so there were always books in the house and no tv.
Growing up, my mom would read. I’d watch her fall completely into a book. She’d warn my sister and I that she was going to read and we should not bother her unless it was an emergency. I watch her get so caught up in the book, and I wanted to know what that felt like! I read a book about Martha Washington in 4th grade, and I was so awed by her. I understood why my mom was so sucked into books. I was a goner from that moment on.
In elementary school I struggled with reading but then we did this bookworm where every time I read a book I got to color a picture on a circle and watch the worm grow as we taped them up and after so many books I would get a prize. Well I’m trying to get all these prizes I found book series that I really liked (Magic Tree House, Bailey School Kids Mysteries, Goosebumps) and I kept reading. Eventually my reading level shot up so I was ahead of the class instead of behind it. That led to me being grounded from books because there was nothing else to take away from me when I was in trouble.
I remember reading in elementary school, but it wasn’t until I was an adult I really got hooked. My reading obsession took over about a decade ago
5 years old and my aunt handed me Charlotte’s Web. It was all over after that.?
I got into reading when I was in primary school (many moons ago ?) and we had a read-a-thon competition to see whom could read the most books. I was hooked after that ?
In elementary, can’t remember at what age. My grandma always influenced me to read but my bigger reason is escapism.
I love to read books since when I was in elementary, and I can still remember the time with great clarity when I won the “best story telling.” Award during my elem. Days 🙂
We just always read at my house. Listening to my father read to us is one of my earliest memories, and soon I could follow along. I am almost 60, but I can still hear Dad’s voice when I read Rikki Tikki Tavi, Tom Sawyer or Treasure Island.
@Liza oww, that’s so sweet. ?
I never had someone who reads for me when I was a kid.
@Ron i was very blessed to have been raised in a reading household. But you can start your own reading traditions!
The Magic Treehouse and Junie B. Jones were the first two series that I got into. By grade 1, I remember reading Little House in the Big Woods and loving it. My mother was always a big reader and so she taught me fairly early and always supplied me with a large collection of whatever it was I was into. My grandmother also fueled my addiction as she instilled into my mind the philosophy of never feeling guilty for spending money on books because the knowledge gained from them is priceless.
Can’t remember the age… but goosebumps ??
My parents read stories to me from when I was born and I’m so grateful. I was desperate to be able to read before I could and used to carry a bag of books around with me and pretend to be reading ?. My mum made me a special book bag which I still have. In high school I got incredibly depressed and couldn’t read for a few years, but I managed to get back into it last year and am lovingly it ❤️
I started looking at magazines at 4 years of age. No one read to me. We had no books at home. In kindergarten I was given a book at Xmas time. By that summer I taught myself to read. Never stopped. My mother thought reading was a waste of time. I would finish my chores in summer and read in backyard. If Mom caught me new chores appeared along with a stern command to not read.
Have always been an avid reader. However moving to a tiny town in ND from Las Vegas really kicked up my reading. Not a whole lot else to do.
Dick and Jane
@G me 2
R.L Stine
Bernstein Bears 4 years old pretending to read using pics.
I remember always being able to read fast so I would just devour books.. In school I’d read til the end of the book when the rest of the class was still only in the middle chapters. But I remember my dad would always take me to the bookstore (Borders!) on the weekends, that was our bonding time. He’d get coffee and read newspapers and I’d browse different books and read at the store while we ate at the Cafe 🙂 that probably helped open my world of books up tremendously
Both my parents loved to read. I am a product of the Dick and Jane learn to read. But know reading with my mother set me on the path to loving reading.
Book It! Reading challenge in 4th and 5th grade. My mom was and still is a big reader, and I wanted to be like her too.
Elementary school…Beverly Cleary!!!!! And Carolyn Haywood…the B is for Betsy books!
Elements school . It was fascinating to read someone’s story
My grandma use to go to the local shop to get tv tubes and it was next to library
We lived in a rural area with no other kids nearby. My parents were older when I was born (40 &50) AND I was hyperactive with a wild imagination. Books entertained and calmed me, giving them a much needed respite.
Loved it as a kid and honestly can’t remember my first book or why I picked it up. Loved reading until I hit adolescence then stopped. Started again with Made Men by Greg Smith after my Dad turned me onto the Sopranos TV show. Real life Mafia books turned into American History and science, politics then I discovered Hunter S Thompson, Charles Bukowski and finally Stephen King. Reading has helped me with substance abuse issues for years now
I had a very unorthodox, often isolated, childhood. Fortunately I attended an independent school district whose philosophy pushed reading and English over math and science. Funny how we all seemed to do quite well in math and science once we’d primed our brains.
When I was younger my grandma was a big reader and so when I started school I used to come home with library books and we would always sit down and she would read one side of the book and I would read the other! I also used to go with her to this little book store that she loved to go to and we would get my favorite books Berenstein bears! ?
My grandma who raised me would buy me little golden books and read to me at night time before I went to bed. I loved them little books I had so many of them.
I was very sick when I was little and almost went blind. While I was recovering my mom bought the first Harry Potter book for me. I’ve been hooked ever since ?
As far as I can remember, I’ve always loved books, even before I could properly read
In seven grade my teacher at that time in encourage