Were you an avid reader as a child?

[Night Elf]

Some of my fondest childhood memories are the trips to the library with my mom. We would bring home a big bag of books and spend a good deal of time reading. Summer was the best because we could go in the middle of the day. I got a love of reading from both of my parents, but somehow it skipped over my sister. She was never a big reader. My kids don't seem to have the reading bug either. Dd14 reads more than my other two but even she rarely reads anymore.

 

What about you? Were you a huge reader as a child?

[amy g.]

YES!

[Jen in PA]

I read a TON growing up. I really think my parents bought our house just for the built in bookcases. :D Not only did we have tons of books and visit the library regularly, we received books as gifts all the time and were always given money to buy books through school (Scholastic book club?). My DH, who is a huge reader, grew up in a home without books. I cannot even imagine what that would be like.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Absolutely!! I used to put my books and my cat in a basket, haul them up to my favorite tree and sit and read all day.

I had library cards at every one I could get to on my bike.

[dangermom]

Yes. My memories of summer are all about going to swimming lessons in the morning and then walking over to the library and spending as much of the rest of the day there as possible. We didn't have AC!

 

My mom is a librarian (and now I am too) so our house was always stuffed with books.

[KnitWit]

YES!!! And I have indoctrinated all of my children! :)

[tntgoodwin]

Extremely.

[Liz CA]

I devoured books to the point of reading under the covers with a flashlight and hiding from the rest of the family (in the cherry trees) so I would be undisturbed and couldn't be summoned for chores.

[KarenNC]

Yes, still am. I shared a bedroom with my much younger sister, who wanted a nightlight. I would hang off the end of my bed reading by the nightlight after I was supposed to be asleep. I'd also take a book in the car and try to read by the headlights of the cars behind us.:)

[-M-]

Ayup.

[frugalmama]

Yep! But in my defense I spent my childhood in upper Michigan - there isn't much to do there in winter except stay inside and read.

 

My dd is a reader too

[elegantlion]

Yes, and it's been very distressing to have a child that isn't. It really took me a few years to get over the angst that my son didn't want to spend all of his free time in a book. Dh isn't much of a reader either.

[ashfern]

Yes. There was a library about 1 block from my grandparent's house that we walked to all the time. My oldest daughter is a reader like me. My son was not but I finally found a book series that he likes, the Artemis Fowl series. He's reading through those super quick. Now I just need to find something else as he's going to be done with the series soon.

[joannqn]

I don't remember my parents ever reading to me or taking me to the library as a kid. I did ride my bike to the local library. Most often I went with my neighbor-babysitter-pedophile. Despite that, I enjoyed going to the library and can still picture it in detail.

 

Starting in my preteen years, I was often grounded for 1-3 months at a time. I wanted nothing to do with my parents, so I spent that time on my bed reading my dad's science fiction and my mom's Harlequin Romance books. My dad read all of the books he got from his book club, but I've never seen my mom read a single book. I don't know why she was in the book club. It was around that time I started reading other adult fiction and didn't return to children's lit (other than school assigned) until I had kids of my own.

 

My kids are or have the signs of becoming avid readers.

[SKL]

By average standards, yes, but I never thought of myself that way. I walked to the library whenever I got the urge and I usually had one or two books going, in addition to my school reading (which itself included more reading than many kids do). But I was also very active outdoors (free-range) and had other hobbies. I wasn't a "hide in the treehouse with a book all summer" kind of kid.

[Coffeetime]

Yes. Devoured every good book in our local library, I'm pretty sure. My whole family read avidly, so I came by in honestly. Like PPs, I also spent time hidden up in a tree with a book, or out in the woods so no one could find me. :001_smile: I read mostly the classics. By the time I was 14 I had already read a lot of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.:tongue_smilie:

 

 

Yes, and it's been very distressing to have a child that isn't. It really took me a few years to get over the angst that my son didn't want to spend all of his free time in a book. Dh isn't much of a reader either.

 

:iagree:

My kids read- but they don't read like I did. But then again- growing up I didn't have tv or video games. :glare:

[Denisemomof4]

I was a HUGE reader as a child. Nobody else in my family was other than an aunt who lived thousands of miles from me. My mom used to say the house could burn down around me and if I were reading, I would never know. It proved to be true. I was steaming cauliflower for dinner when dh and I were newlyweds. He was grilling outside. As I waited for dinner to finish cooking, I read a book. I was wondering what dh was burning as it smelled REALLY bad. When dh came into the house, he got annoyed to find the cauliflower totally burnt and the pot melted into the stove as I sat in the next room reading my book.:lol::lol::lol:

[Lorelai3777]

My mom used to buy boxes of books for me at garage sales... I remember some of my favorites were the Nancy Drews( I wish I had saved them, ugh!).. but so many I devoured! I hope my kids feel the same soon.. We have a bookshelf in each of their bedrooms, a wall of books in the studio.. and go to the library a lot!

[Denisemomof4]

Btw, dh is a huge reader as well but rarely has the time to read for enjoyment now. Earlier in our married life, we would soend lots of time reading in bed together, spending hindreds at book stores.....:001_wub::001_wub::001_wub:

 

All four of our kids are big readers now.:001_smile:

[Lorelai3777]

I was a HUGE reader as a child. Nobody else in my family was other than an aunt who lived thousands of miles from me. My mom used to say the house could burn down around me and if I were reading, I would never know. It proved to be true. I was steaming cauliflower for dinner when dh and I were newlyweds. He was grilling outside. As I waited for dinner to finish cooking, I read a book. I was wondering what dh was burning as it smelled REALLY bad. When dh came into the house, he got annoyed to find the cauliflower totally burnt and the pot melted into the stove as I sat in the next room reading my book.:lol::lol::lol:

Oh I understand this! In school, people would stand over me, calling my name, and it would take several minutes for me to come out of my story world..(for some reason I'm not too bad now, probably from the kids and constant distraction) lol Glad your kitchen didn't catch on fire, eek!

**I remember too, reading so much, words I didn't pronounce right.. but knew what they meant.. one day I came home and told my mom I was "naw-seat-ed" from the "chay-ose" on the bus... HAHA

Edited June 7, 2012 by Lorelai3777

[acablue]

I was a huge reader as a kid, but never would've admitted it to anyone. My parents were members of the Book of the Month Club forever and had thousands of books stacked in our basement. My grandparents had a formal library in their house. I loved it.

[Ellie]

Oh, yes. There was NEVER enough time in a day for reading.:)

[Dory]

YES! I read enough to get myself in trouble. We had to be outside playing a minimum amount of time every day and I would actually stash books in plastic bags outside to hide and read while I was out there. I had books in between my mattresses, in my pillow case, in my closet, under my dresser. My mom encouraged reading to a point, but she insisted that there were things I would only learn from seeing touching and experiencing. I would get chewed out regularly, although the only time I got in real big trouble over reading was when I snaffled my moms textbooks from Nurses training. She was a little unimpressed to be finding her 8 year old pouring over those.

[MinivanMom]

Yes!

[Mandylubug]

I loved going to the library, I read books but it wasn't a passion for me as a kid. I didn't get into true leisurely reading until after I was married. I really think I was ADHD as a child and just couldn't focus enough in school to get into any books other than horror stories. Other books, I typically never finished.

 

My kids are the same way, my husband with diagnosed ADHD just finished the Hunger Games trilogy and that was such a huge accomplishment for him. He is a bright, quick thinking guy that can figure anything out but couldn't focus to read a book for anything in the world.

[Stratford]

Very much so. I'm still a reader. So far, I'm the only one in my family....I keep hoping one of the kids will catch the bug....

[MissKNG]

Absolutely!

[thefragile7393]

Oh big big time. Summer reading programs at the library were most awesome. I took books everywhere and anywhere and I am still this way. I love love love reading.

[KrissiK]

Yes, I was. I loved to read and read the same books over and over and over again. I loved the Misty books by Marguerite Henry. I loved the Little House Books. There were a few others that I read and loved.

[Alice]

Yes, absolutely.

[stripe]

Huge reader, living in a house with few children's books and never taken to the library. I've remedied that for my kids.

[Harriet Vane]

YES!

 

:iagree:

[*Michelle*]

Huge. I learned to read at a very early age and devoured every book that I came across. I don't like that I don't have the time to read as much now, but I know that will change down the road.

[WTMCassandra]

Huge, enormous, voracious reader here. Then and now.

[SquirrellyMama]

No, I wasn't a big reader as a kid. I went to the library but didn't read much. I love reading now. My love for reading started my sophomore year in college. My youngest child reads all the time. I should get Sonlight for her. She told me one day that she wished she could just read books for school. My oldest likes to read but not like the youngest. My ds likes Garfield comic books. All other books are a chore for him.

 

Kelly

[QueenCat]

Yes, as was my husband. Both of our kids are avid readers.

[Jenny in Florida]

Yes, I was a big reader. I remember biking to the library during the summer and then having to figure out how to get home the stack of books I checked out.

 

I fell in love with Narnia at the library near my grandmother's house when I was visiting her one summer.

 

I still read a lot, as do both of my kids.

[EKS]

I read a lot but I wasn't a very good reader. So I read a lot of junk (Judy Blume was one of my favorite authors) and I would also read the same books over and over. But when I had to read harder things for school, I couldn't do it. I'm pretty sure now that I have mild dyslexia.

Edited June 7, 2012 by EKS

[Onceuponatime]

Yep. We used to have a tree house way up in an oak tree. I would go up and read for hours. I used to get in trouble with my mom for reading so much and not "socializing."

[meena]

Yes! My first grade teacher used to give out lollipops for every 5 books read. That year I earned 60 lollipops!

 

My DD was slow to learn to read, but now she is my fellow bookworm. She just admitted recently that she will wake up in the middle of the night and read by the light of her nightlight. I'm still guilty of that! :)

[theYoungerMrsWarde]

I was a huge reader as a kid, partly because I didn't have any friends. I became "famous" as "The Girl Who Reads at Recess." My family didn't encourage it, but my elementary school librarian let me check out a new book every day instead of every other week like the rest of the kids did.

[J-rap]

Yes, HUGE! Rarely did something excite me as much as picking out a whole new set of books, and deciding which one to read first. :) My mother is an avid reader too, but none of my siblings are.

[Mergath]

I spent every spare second reading. My mom did all her shopping and errands on Saturdays, and she'd drop me off at the library with money for a pop and a candybar for a couple hours. Every week, I'd pick out a huge bagful of books, and every week, I'd read them all.

 

I used to get in trouble for it in school. When I'd get my work done, I'd try to sneak a book while I waited for the other kids to finish, and if the teacher caught me, I got in trouble. It wasn't time to read, but to just sit quietly, she said. :glare: One of many reasons we're hsers.

[Mama Geek]

Yes, but I read a lot of romance novels, VC Andrews, Hardy Boys and stuff like that. I didn't read classics unless I had to for school and I didn't read nonfiction.

 

Sometime after college I started reading only non fiction and then about the time I found out I was pregnant I added in classics, because I want to give dd mostly a classical education. I want to preread stuff and form an opinion of it before having dd read it.

[laughing lioness]

Big reader. I read everything in site. My 8th grade english teacher told me I read too much. Oldest sis and I shared books until she died. Younger sis never read much- she was mostly deaf and didn't read a book till age 14.

[Blueridge]

Absolutely not. The only book I remember reading was Stuart Little. :001_huh:

[Mama Anna]

I'd also take a book in the car and try to read by the headlights of the cars behind us.:)

 

:iagree: That used to drive my mom crazy!

 

We had a little small-town library 5 miles away from us when I was growing up. We'd each get 10-15 books out at a time, with the librarian rationing us on series. ("No more than 5 from one series, now.") We never had a huge problem with late fees - I think the total check-out allowance was small and we'd burn through all the books so fast that we'd have to have them back each week in order to get more out.

 

I remember reading Ben Hur on the bus in 4th grade, so proud of myself that I was reading a "big book." I always read on the 45-60 minute schoolbus ride when it was light enough. When I got to high school, it would sometimes be one of the few times that I could read fun stuff instead of homework. I was unhappy when my parents decided my dad would drive me to school instead of riding the bus (it was supposed to be father-daughter time) because I knew I would lose that reading time.

 

My mom took my book away once when I wasn't getting my chores done. (It was Marguerite Henry's King of the Wind - I still remember!) After that she only had to threaten such a punishment for me to hop to them. :)

 

I love to glance around the living room now and see dh, myself, and all three dd reading/looking at books. Such a feeling of kinship! (Such blessed, positive silence!! :D)

 

Mama Anna

[phathui5]

I was a huge reader. I loved (and still love) going to the library and I would stay up late reading, being careful not to get caught.

[justLisa]

I don't remember being encouraged to read much. I love to read now, but only non fiction. Informational things, or biographies....stories of war survival etc. Maybe had I known it was ok to not want to read fairy tails growing up I would have read more. DS is much the same. He is NOT a story book reader but loves to read non fiction.

[DawnM]

I read when I was bored, but if given the choice between playing with friends and reading, I would pick friends every time.