From your memory, about when can you go back in time to

[hippywife]

consider yourself an avid reader?

I can remember going to the library in our grade school when I was very young and checking out books beyond my age. About fourth or fifth grade, I was checking out 8th grade reading material, biographies and the like. Reading's been such a passion for so long, it's really hard for me to remember when I was without a book.

How 'bout you? :hi:

[Lost4words]

1. If you want the full story, open a book!

and to think for me it started with "Clifford the Big Red Dog" and " All About small gas engines" . Answers are in books.
I love books. I am a map fan as well!

Good morning to you eager reader! :hi: I almost never read fiction.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. My mother got me my first library card when I was in kindergarten.

My hunger for books really became ravenous by the sixth grade. I couldn't find enough biographies on Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart in the school and public libraries. My hunger for knowledge and information has only increased as I matured.

[hippywife]

9. I remember my very first library card!

It was paper with a metal tag in it that had a number so they could imprint it on a slider thingie when I checked out books! I had almost forgotten about that. LOL

And you're absolutely right about that hunger for knowledge and information. I don't think it's ever left me, either.

:hi:

[no_hypocrisy]

11. My first library card was exactly like yours.

I was so proud of it. The first book I took out was a biography of Cleopatra. Yes, at age 6 female leaders interested me.

[notadmblnd]

3. The Tip and Mitten stories in the first grade

Then it was Jack and Janet. I don't really remember learning how to read, I just remember that it came to me.

[glowing]

4. I've always loved reading.. However, during college, the many text books and research papers

kept me from "enjoyable" reading... the kind that takes me into a created world of the author.. I really love the fantasy novels... esp. where a different world is created... But when I was a kid, any book I could get my hands on, I read...

[greymattermom]

5. A teacher in the family

One of my elderly aunts was a retired teacher. She gave me an old fourth grade book when I was probably in second grade. I felt so proud to be able to read it with no problem, and was a book from the 1940s, when school books had more words than pictures.

[handmade34]

6. thank goodness for RIF

...my kids would come home from school with piles of books and we read and read and read...

[hippywife]

10. Great memories, eh, mom?

Reading as a family activity is wonderful. :hug:

[RC]

7. I remember reading our Collier's Encyclopaedia's when I was a kid.

I go through till I find a picture that looked interesting and read the article(s) that accompanied it. Some quite interesting reads in the early 50's.
Later, when I had a library card, I read almost every science fiction book I could get my hands on.

[hippywife]

8. That jarred another memory

of laying on the floor in front of the rack full of Funk and Wagnalls and reading through those. :hi:

[yellowdogintexas]

47. my personal fave was my mom's old World Books..like 1938 edition

LOL some of that stuff was hilarious.

I used to randomly pull an encyclopedia and just plow through it.

so do you sing the letters to encyclopedia in order to spell it correctly?

[fadedrose]

58. I remember Dick, Jane, Father, Mother, Baby and seeing Spot run..eom

[LiberalLoner]

12. I didn't learn how to read until first grade when I was six...rop

I wasn't one of those smart kids who taught myself how to read unfortunately. I remember being so frustrated at age 4 and 5 that I could not read, and I loved it when my older sister would read to me. I wanted more than anything to be able to read and I was so happy when I was six and went to school and learned to read.

I loved to read right from the start, and advanced pretty quickly I think. I don't know exactly where I was level-wise in first grade or second or third, but I know by fourth grade I was placed in the advanced English class, the "Wide Horizons" reading group, LOL. By the end of 6th grade they did some kind of academic testing on all us students and the teachers said in terms of comprehension, vocabulary and other English skills, I was at the level of a college freshman. I've always loved to read.

It's hard for me to understand people who hate to read. Most people I know hate to read. My mother in fact used to refuse to be friends with anyone who would read, even if they only read an occasional romance paperback or magazine. Maybe she felt intimidated by those people, because she only had a 9th grade education. My godmother, who was good friends with my mother, dropped out of school in the sixth grade and has nothing but derision for anyone who has gone to college and who reads books. She sees reading books as being unamerican.

When I look at the teabaggers, I see my mother and my godmother. I see people who never had much of a formal education, and who actively refused to read once they did leave school. I see people who hate ideas and learning and progress, and who resent people who do love learning and progress and ideas.

[hippywife]

16. That is exactly what I see as missing

from the right-wingers I know...a lack of real curiosity about the world and the others we share it with, including their own countrymen and women, and a lack of desire to continue to learn. Which also makes them extremely susceptible to believing anything they are told by those who would twist the realities.

:hi:

[Linncn]

49. Did you really say that?

Teabaggers don't read? What are you talking about? This is the problem I see with many liberals... they speak with authority on topics they know nothing about.

On a personal note, I remember the day I learned to read. I was 6 years old, sitting on the sofa with my older brother, "Go Dog, Go" spread on our laps. He was helping me sound out the words, and all of the sudden it made sense to me. I, along with my (also conservative) brother, have been avid readers since the old days.

I know a lot of people. Some read, some don't. Some have the time, some make the time, and some have no interest. I have NEVER encountered any resentment between readers and non readers. I think you are making a ridiculous leap with your insulting statement about reading and political affiliation. Seriously!

[hippywife]

53. Welcome to DU.

I've put in an order for a steaming hot pizza...coming your way soon! :hi:

[pinboy3niner]

13. For me, it was the Sunday newspaper comics when I was very

young, then comic books (everything from "Donald Duck" and "Archie" to classics like "A Tale of Two Cities"). Around 10 or 11 I discovered sci-fi in the elementary school library (I think it was something like "Visit to the Mushroom Planet"). In jr. high I continued to devour a lot of sci-fi and developed an interest in social studies and American history.

In HS I had some great teachers who introduced me to classic lit, and I had a chance to take an experimental Shakespeare course for a year. A major influence was a HS teacher named Gene Friedman, who taught me in English, journalism, and AP English. Gene took a bunch of us to plays, to see Ray Bradbury hosting a screening of his short stories, to the Shakespeare Festival in San Diego, etc. We stayed in touch until his death a few years ago.

College was more than just standard textbooks, because profs often gave assigned readings in addition to the texts, and those often included some very interesting material. My preferences today are newspapers, pop fiction, lit, and politics.

Edited to add: Today, when I give gifts to children of relatives, I usually give books.

[ixion]

14. I've been an avid reader since I could read, although in the last few years I don't read as much

mostly because I've read everything I was interested in reading. When I was in college I was talking to my Medieval literature prof, and he said he'd stopped reading new things, and for the life of me I couldn't understand how that could be. 25 years later, I understand, for good or ill.

[elocs]

15. I used to love to read books, but not anymore.

I can remember when I was in the 2nd grade going to the library and getting 6th grade books to read. I can remember getting books one day and bringing them back the next day to get new ones.

Today I do so much reading online that I just don't want to do more reading. Although I do listen to books on cd every week. That makes me wonder, when the blind listen to books does that count as "reading" or are they somehow required to do it in Braille for it to count as "reading"?

[hippywife]

18. For awhile I read so much online

especially politics, that I too stopped reading for enjoyment. I finally decided enough was enough and started reading fiction again. It's been very good for the heart and soul to do something again that I so loved and missed.

I count listening to books on audio media as reading. Just because someone can't with their eyes, and learning Braille would be like learning a different language, which would make it difficult for those who were not born blind and learned it from the beginning. Even sighted people can enjoy books on audio media, like having a story read to you again. :D

It all counts! :hi:

[elocs]

28. I would listen to books on cd when I would take a walk, and only while I walked.

So if it was a book I really liked and wanted to finish it would encourage me to walk more. It's a good system to get more exercise.

[Jim__]

34. I wonder about fiction on DVD.

Could that replace reading fiction? I know it's extremely hard for us to picture this; but I think reading fiction is preceded by primitive man telling stories. I wonder if future man will replace reading fiction with watching fiction.

[elocs]

35. There's something comforting about having someone read to you.

I can remember being in grade school when the teacher would read to us and we would all put our heads on the desks. As well there is the memory of being read to by your parents.

On my local NPR stations one of their most popular programs that has run for decades is "Chapter a Day", a half an hour of reading from a selected book.

[yellowdogintexas]

48. puts me to sleep. Many of my coworkers listen to books on disc

but I can't do it and stay awake

[mariema]

55. Yeah WPR is the best! nt

[Daphne08]

17. I was always a reader.

I have fond memories of my parents (mostly my mother) reading to my older brother and me at night.

We always had books, magazines, dictionaries and a set of encyclopedias in our home, and Mother made weekly trips with us to the public library. (She's well into her 80's now, but she still goes to that same library every week. She's also a member of the local Book Club.)

To answer your question, I can't remember when I wasn't an avid reader. My oldest son was always the same way. He's almost 40 now and he has several advanced degrees, but beyond that, his love of reading has broadened his mind and molded him in such a way that he's become a very knowledgeable person in many areas especially literature and world history. He's become one of the most interesting people I've had the privilege of knowing (and I don't mind saying so).

Unfortunately, my younger son never cared much for it (although his school required a heavy dose of reading). His lack of interest in books has always baffled me. He's done well in life and has a great job, but I feel he's missed out on so much historical context and richness in life simply because he had no interest in reading anything other than music and sports magazines. (I must say, however, that he's very talented, and he's also quite an interesting fellow in his own right.)

I'm older now and find that reading requires much more concentration than it did in the past. It often puts me to sleep now. (I really don't like the aging process. :P )

[ensho]

19. I was desperate to learn to read when I went to kindergarten

and crushed to learn I had to wait another year for first grade.

in first grade I learned to read all at once and from that point on read every printed word I could find. toothpaste tubes, cans of vegs. our 2 daily newspapers, road signs, etc.

I kept asking my father what certain words meant. he was tired of fooling with me and told me to read the whole paragraph and I would probably figure out what the word meant.

that worked pretty much until I came across a different word for the penis. I went and asked him what the word meant (I thought it meant penis but wasn't sure) he turned red with embarrassment and said " it was a he horses hang down".

sigh - he was a republican.

[hippywife]

20. LOL!

Great story! :rofl:

:hi:

[abluelady]

21. I Remember Being Around Nine

We lived in a small town in NJ. My mom was one of the original volunteers in a brand new library that was housed in an old house on Main Street. I used to go with her when she "worked" there and read to my heart's content. I remember loving high school romances. A very typical girl. lol

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. Remember those huge Webster Dictionaries on a stand?

My grandmother had one.
I started picking out words when I was about 4, I think.
I was reading well by kindergarten.
She also had a huge bookcase of all the books that were popular in the 30's and 40's
Tom Sawyer, Jane Eyre, Alice in Wonderland, etc. I read every one.
If I found a word I didn't understand, I went to the huge dictionary. One word led to another,
I would actually roam the dictionary for hours.
( sorta like I roam the internet today)
Whole family thought I was crazy.
"Always has her nose in a book"
"Put down that book and go outside and play".
Actually that meant my Mom could not put up with someone
"lying around and doing nothing"
House work was important. Reading was being lazy.
I learned to stash books outside, climb a tree, and read away the summer days.

The library had a limit of 2 books back then, so I was there every other day.
That was back in the days when a kid could wander off and be gone all day, and not have to account for their time, as long as you were not caught doing something illegal, and were home by dinner time. No questions asked.
All you needed was a bike, or bus tokens, and a mother who did not want kids in the house during the day. It was wonderful.

My family had smarts, but saw no value in education, they thought a High School Diploma was
the ultimate mark of success.
With one of those, you could go to work at any of the many paper mills in the area and eventually be a foreman, work all your life, and retire with a good pension.
I was the only person in the family tree to go to college.
And at the college, they had a lot of libraries !!!!!
I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I learned to speed read for classes, which almost ruined reading for enjoyment.

Later, I taught both my children the alphabet by the time they were 2.
They were reading well by age 4, and to this day they thank me.

The big Webster dictionary on the movable oak stand sits in my house today.
We still use it.

[hippywife]

23. What a wonderful keepsake.

Yes, dictionaries and encyclopedias were great for endless hours of fascination. :hi:

[fadedrose]

24. Started in grade school . .

Always liked to read - but in my young adult years, work limited my time. Somebody had to clean and cook, and it was me. The kids also cut down on reading time.

But now, at 72, and for the last 3 years or so, I've made up for lost time. Social security doesn't cover the cost of hundreds of books I read a year, so thank goodness for the wonderful library and its web site. I was always kind of snobby about using the library and felt like a cheapskate if I borrowed rather than bought a book.

Had a knee replacement and can't get down on my knees to scan the bottom shelves at the library, or get onto a bench to get to the top shelves, so the pulling of books by the librarians and having them stacked is such a great treasure. I go online and "request" the books I want and they call when the books are ready.

[hippywife]

25. Requesting from the website is such a wonderful convenience.

As much as I hate to admit it, I love the library itself...the books, the smell, the quiet...but after buying books for so many years, I forget how to find what I want in the library. That's really terrible, isn't it. I even worked in the school library in jr. and sr. high. :eyes: :rofl:

I love just being able to stop by and pick them up, and spend the rest of the time there talking to my librarian. We always have good conversation.

:hi:

[Bitwit1234]

26. When I was three years old.

My next door neighbor and I hiding under the front porch so my baby sister couldn't find us. And riding on my father's shoulder when we went across a field. Heard from grown ups the world went around so I stood in the middle of the road and waited for it to take me to the store to spend my penny.

I remember lots of stuff when I was 3,4,5, and boy I can't remember stuff from when I was 20 -30....I am 77.

[hippywife]

31. You might want to go back and re-read the OP.

;)


:hi:

[Ernesto]

27. I'm now reading "The Family" by Jeff Sharlet

Slow (text book like) read. Well researched, full of names & dates about the fundamentalist secret society that influences way to much of the world.

[hippywife]

32. Hi, Ernesto.

I think you posted this in the wrong thread. :hi:

[LWolf]

29. Since before I could read,

when I paged through picture books I'd memorized because they'd been read to me so often. I was impatient, demanding that someone teach me to read, and tired of being told to wait until I got to go to school. School was a major goal for me, simply because I'd learn to read. I was devastated when I came home, after the first day of kindergarten, and I wasn't reading yet.

My grandpa reassured me: "Don't worry; you'll be reading by Christmas!"

I was, but he wasn't there to celebrate with me; he passed away in November.

[applegrove]

30. I go through various phases when reading. As teen I read Somerset Maugham

short stories.In my twenties i started to read non fiction (especially magazines like the economist). Now I read everything depending on my mood.

[AmandaMae]

33. 2nd grade. I started off reading

Nancy Drew, the Little House books, and this series of books called the Animal Ark series or something like that. I also read a lot of nonfiction. I first learned about global warming when I was 8 in a book about the rainforest.

[BlueIris]

36. First grade. I started trying to read long novels.

Like, the longer Madeline L'Engle novels that were fourth, fifth, sixth grade level. It was challenging, but it made me a better reader in about a year.

[closeupready]

37. Never been much of an "avid" reader, but I have always tried to have something to read.

My family has encouraged us to read. We'd go shopping at the mall, and always stop in Walden Books or Kroch's & Brentano's and buy a book.

Thing of it is, most books do nothing for me - I get bored and just stop. But when I find something I like, I just DEVOUR it, it's unreal - I've always felt I'm a slow reader, but when I come across a 600-page book like Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I breeze through it in three days, I'm like, wow, completely amazed.

But I guess to answer your question, the first adult-type book I read that I can recall was The Hobbit, which I read in either 3rd or 5th grade, IIRC. :)

[azmouse]

38. I'd go back to a time before I could read!

I remember looking at books with lots of pictures when I was about 5 years old and pretending I could read them.
Once I started school and learned how to read there was no stopping me.

I love books!

[NEOhiodemocrat]

39. From the time I figured out how to read

I read anything in sight. I remember reading cereal boxes in the morning, I just could not sit there with words in front of me and not read them! My family had a six book set of fairy tales that came with an encyclopedia set and the first started out with little two verse ones, on up until the sixth was long stories. I read and reread them by the time I was in about second grade. Then when the bookmobile came in the summer I would get out six books (all you were allowed to) and read them all by that night. Just sit on the front porch and read till I ran out of books. I have always been a very fast reader. It got so I picked books on how fat they were so they lasted longer! I could not imagine not having reading material around. I read all my Mom's magazines, newspapers, anything. When I got my books in school I always had the English book with stories read by the end of the first day or so, and any other reasonably interesting subject read in the first week.

[pscot]

40. I go back to about 439 BC

but there are gaps.

[DUgosh]

41. I wished the Beldens were my folks

nt

[Mz Pip]

43. I still have a couple of those books

and the entire Nancy Drew collection up through the 50s.

[WCIL]

42. The pieces all came together for me

in 1st grade, when we used the SRA reading system. Once I learned to read, I was off and running, doing those SRA cards so fast I finished the set. We didn't use the library that much when we lived in New York, but in 2nd grade we moved to California while my dad spent a year in Japan. We went to the library often, and mom encouraged me to read chapter books because I read the picture books too fast.

My happiest memory is watching my Mom stand her ground with the librarian and get permission for me to take my library card upstairs to the adult department when I was in 4th grade and we had moved to Illinois. In a year I had read everything I was even remotely interested in from the juvenile section, but the librarian wouldn't believe that I could read adult literature at my age. I read everything the library had by Jean Plaidy and Victoria Holt that first year, and still check one out every now and again to bring back the feeling.

[EFerrari]

44. My mom gave me "Little Women" to read when I was in second grade.

Neither of us knew it was too hard. Mom was all of 27 at the time.

I think I read it every year for a about five years, learning slowly what all the words meant and eventually about "Everyman" and the Civil War and the Transcendentalists and so on. My friends cracked up when a yard duty teacher in 7th grade told me the book was too difficult because they all knew I'd been studying it for years.

There were no books in our house even though my grandmother was a bluestocking because this was a family of recent immigrants. The only thing I remember was my gramma's Readers' Digest in Spanish which she loved and loathed and her one volume dictionary/encyclopedia which I wasn't supposed to handle on my own. My first school didn't have a library but the public school I went to in 2nd grade had a FABULOUS library and we got to go there twice a week. :woohoo:

Eventually, Mom took me to the public library and she'd help me cart books home and for several years, I didn't get an allowance but instead got books -- I did the math and it was a better deal, lol! I was spending 2-4 hours a day reading from 3rd grade on, easily and thank heavens, they just let me do it!

[Saboburns]

45. The 3 Investigators, Mad Scientist Club...

My mom was a great grade school teacher and I always read as a kid, and still love to read anything. I'm 42 and still amazed to learn so much while Reading.

Sadly, not many youngsters read anything anymore. Well anything longer than a paragraph or two.

I guess I just got lucky!!

[yellowdogintexas]

46. before first grade. The Christmas I was 6 I got books and was lost to the

rest of the family for the duration of the Christmas break

[Phentex]

50. It started with the bookmobile!...

Our little country school didn't have its own library so a Bookmobile came around and we took turns entering to make our selections off the small shelves inside the van. It smelled like books, ya know? And it was colorful and fun and somehow special.

When they closed our school and I went to one further "in town" I was in awe of the library which was housed *all by itself* in a trailer next to the school building! L-O-V-E!

I think my real love for books started when my older brothers and sisters read Dr. Seuss books to me.

[JitterbugPerfume]

51. I remember pretending to read the newspaper

when I was really small. There is a picture of my granddaughter sitting on her potty chair "reading" the paper(about two)She is 13 now, and reads everything she can get her hands on, just like her granny.

I didn't go to school until I was almost seven.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. I was out sick most of my kindergarten year

For much of the time, I was too sick to go to school, but not too sick to be bored. My parents, both of whom had been elementary school teachers in the past, taught me to read. And that's where it began.

[northoftheborder]

54. earliest reading

I stayed at home and was taught first grade reading by my mother. I know I spent hours every day reading and rereading that little stack of early school readers, plus all the other story books given to me. When I went into second grade in school, I was way ahead in reading - and have read voraciously ever since. I have gone through phases - my favorite book for years was "Little Women" and all things Alcott. Then historical novels were my favorite for ages. School and my dad mandated the classics, which I read way ahead of my understanding of them, then I continued to read mainly novels through decades, but also magazines and newspapers. The last ten years or so I have been turning to history, politics, current events, biographies and non-fiction, although I still read some non-fiction "fun" novels. I love political thrillers, other adventure stories such as Dan Brown's books. I loved the Harry Potter series along with my grandchildren. My favorites at the moment are political magazines, such as the Nation, Mother Jones, Texas Observer; also on my shelf are some current biographies of noted Americans, current and historic, a cookbook, gardening magazines. I suppose I have an eclectic taste in reading material. I prefer real pages, not electronic ones, except for reading the Web news!!! (which I am doing more and more of, rather than the daily newspaper.)

I can't figure out why some people are voracious readers and others have to be forced to read. Two of my grandsons read a lot, but the other one has to be made to read his assigned reading, and he never just reads for fun. My grand-daughter does like to read, but that's the last thing she chooses to do. Of course my generation did not have television, but we did have radio, which I listened to a lot and it was on most of the time at my house, but that didn't stop me from reading.

[SheilaT]

56. I've been an avid reader since

before I could actually read. Mom would read to me, to all of us kids. I couldn't understand why I had to wait to start school to learn to read, and so when my younger sister was four I taught her to read before she started kindergarten.

In second grade we had a library in the classroom, and I think I read every book in it more than once during that year. We'd moved to a small town outside of Utica, NY, and by the next year persuaded Mom to drive us down to Utica every week or so to go to the library. She used to wait for us in the car, and then when it got cold, she started coming in and resumed the reading habit herself. She remained an avid reader for the rest of her life.

I used to be a little more affluent than I am now, and spent some years buying all of my books. Recent changes have made me return to the public library, and I'd forgotten how wonderful a real library is. Plus, there's simply a different mix of books available in the library compared to bookstores.

I can't imagine not reading. I don't understand people who don't read for pleasure. Every so often I'll be in someone's home where there are simply no books, and that's always a little scary. I always have at least one book with me, sometimes three. If I go on a trip of any kind I bring along even more. Once I was stuck at an airport waiting for a flight delayed due to weather. I finished the book I was reading, and there was no newsstand or bookstore in the airport (small airport, 1970)and the next two hours were possibly the most excruciating of my life. So I'm a little obsessive about having adequate reading material with me.

[Scout]

57. learned to print my name when just under 4 years old, to get my first library card

then i think my mom took me every week or two weeks, always checked out the max number of books allowed! reading with my mom is one of my strongest, best memories. we would take turns reading to each other, especially on hot humid summer days (with no ac!).

[Z_I_Peevey]

59. So easy to answer this one!

Sixth grade, when the bookmobile started making regular stops in my little hometown. I would take my large heavy-plastic op-art bag and fill it to overflowing with wildly inappropriate books, then struggle my way up the hill toward home, shifting the bag from arm to arm when it become too much to handle. I don't know which was more thrilling, reaching the bottom of the bag after two weeks of blissful escapist reading, or the anticipation of taking the first book off the top of the stack once I reached home.

[dimbear]

60. Starting about 2nd grade, would read perhaps 5 books a week

and now I do so again, being retired and all, and that may be what's meant by entering a second childhood.

[TZ]

61. I honestly don't remember NOT being an avid reader

I learned along with my older sister with no one being wiser until I picked up her reading material Sam I am books and just started reading. I was 3 at the time. My sister was 5. My mom thinks between my sister and Sesame Street is how I learned. I actually remember taking a book to read to my pre-school class at 4 because no one else could read yet (it was a big brown book about the Circus)

[Hayabusa]

62. I've always been a reader

My mom taught me the very fundamentals of reading before I was in kindergarten, and I've never really stopped reading. I was reading some actual novels by the time I was in fourth grade.

[japple]

63. My mother potty trained me by giving me a book to look at, so

I guess that's where it started. I've been "regular" ever since, both in reading and in bowel habits. (Sorry, Monica, for being such a smarty-pants, but it's true!!) I credit my mother, who never had the time to read for pleasure, for taking us to the library and letting us check out as many books as we could carry. I particularly enjoyed fairy tales, esp. the tales of Ali Baba and Russian folk tales like Baba Yaga. Then, it was on to biographies of famous Americans that were in the school library and Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys. I also remember reading Lois Lenski books very early on. After my mom retired, she finally had time to read for pleasure and she did her best to make up for lost time.