You know, it’s sort of interesting to take a look at your life and figure out why you do the things you do. I don’t mean why we do crazy, idiotic things… Those are just freakish mistakes that we make. I mean, for example, why do we… let’s say… READ?!?
I grew up in a household where reading was NOT important. It was not something that was pushed, emphasized, cajoled, expected… (You probably get my drift!) Yet, whenever my father was stationed at a new location, one of the first things that I did was to ask my mother to drive me to the local library. To my knowledge, I am the only one of the four children who showed the least bit of interest in reading.
I remember making my way through Edna Ferber’s classics (So Big was a particular favorite of mine) and Pearl S. Buck (The Good Earth was another favorite.) Followed by classics like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. I also went through a “reading stage” where I couldn’t get enough Greek/Roman mythology.
When I lived in Chile, since I spoke English (rather!) fluently, the English teacher let me read mythology during the regular English class time. (My parents sent all four of us to Chilean schools, where we were the only native English speakers.) Little did I know that Sister Serena was starting me on a path that would include a love for all television shows that deal with ancient civilizations!
(More on these ramblings later…)
Vickie says
I can remember always having a book available to me, but not sure that it was emphasized overly much. I was never discouraged, though. Someone was always available to take my sister and me to the library.
I emphasize and encourage reading to my five year old. She’s been listening to books since she was a bean in my belly. = ) Her bookshelves rival mine almost. I love that she gets excited about books, libraries, bookstores, all that. I hope it continues.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Hi Vickie,
Oh! I remember those books on tape!!! They were such fun!
My children were just young enough to enjoy the very first years (I think) that Sesame Street started putting out little Golden Books with audio cassettes. They were truly a joy!
Also, when my children were young, if the books didn’t have an audio cassette recording, I would read the books into the tape recorder and use a whistle to mark the turning of the pages. My daughter (who is twenty two years old) and I just heard a whistle that sounded similar to the one I used, and it was almost a Pavlovian moment for the two of us!
linda says
I think the first book I can remember reading was “The Box Car Children.” I read this book when I was in the 4th grade. Now I graduated in 1963 so that is how long I have been interested in reading. I cannot remember who wrote this book. I didn’t know until a few years ago that there was a series of the Box Car Children. I can still remember the story of this book. One day some years ago I had one of my nieces bring this book home from her school library and I read it again.. After the Harry Potter series this is my all time favorite book still to this day.
Just rambling tonight. Although I would think that with hardly anything decent on TV, day or night, now a days, reading would be on the upswing!!!!!!!
There is a whole big wide world out there and reading is a very inexpensive way to see that big world.
linda says
Still nothing good on TV
Stash Empress says
Oh I totally grew up with books! My mother taught me to read when I was 2yo — it was purely self-defense on her part — to avoid the constant “read me, read me!!!” LOL!
I had my own library card by 2 1/2 — because where we lived you could only take out 10 books on one card at a time — and 10 books weren’t going to last me very long — so we would take out 10 on my father’s card & 10 on mine (my father drove, so he was in charge of weekly library run 😉 ) — those 20 books usually didn’t last the weekend, but was the best we could do.
I also read everything I could get my hands on, in first grade I was reading Readers Digest (back in the days when it was actually full of real articles! Anyone remember “I am Joe’s Heart”, etc. articles?)
Whenever I would ask my mother a question — the answer was invariably, “Look it up!” — so I learned to use reference books at a very young age. (Yes way pre-internet LOL).
So is it any question that I read a lot???? (And so do most of my kids, except for maybe two of them, don’t know why the love of reading skipped them, but the others are certifiable bookworms.)
(And lets see if the blog eats my comment again!!!)