Are you a reader?

[LMD]

Yes, I'm a reader. Dh is just as much as I am. He's making his way through Dante for fun at the moment.

 

My mum is a reader and it's about the only thing we bonded over. I'm not sure about dad, I think he is in theory, but is a workaholic and so doesn't put in the time.

My sister doesn't read, she's one of those people who has never picked up a book after highschool.

Dh's family aren't big readers but his parents will occasionally pick up a Christian book or biography. Mil teases me about buying too many books a lot.

 

My kids are young but shaping up to be voracious readers which makes me happy.

Edited August 15, 2016 by LMD

[Arcadia]

My dad - newspapers at the library

My mom - anything from books to newspapers to magazines to non-fiction

My brother reads but has a slow reading speed so he reads more work related materials

My kids and I practically treat the libraries as our home. We are sometimes there everyday.

My hubby reads mainly non-fiction books and journals

[Lizzie in Ma]

I am indeed, as are my kids and dh and my mother before me.  She spent many hours reading to us as kids, especially from her My Book House set.  I was reading Robin Hood at 5 years old.  I spent many happy hours with my cat and a basket of books in my favorite tree as a kid.  Spent untold hours reading under my bedclothes with a flashlight when I was supposed to be sleeping.

My poor old eyes don't see real print well anymore so I have owned and loved various Kindles since they came out and a Nook before that.  I currently have the Voyage and I love it above all of them.

Reading is like breathing for me.  Essential.

[Amira]

Yes, and so are my parents and my sisters. My children are too. Dh isn't much of a reader though (despite multiple degrees, including a Ph.D.) and his mother isn't either. His dad and stepdad are though.

[BooksandBoys]

I am a huge reader. Constant. Love it.

My father was a huge reader. He read the entire set of encyclopedias when I was elementary aged and enjoyed crime novels as well as nonfiction, especially history.

 

My mother reads very little, my brothers not at all. One of my brothers likes to brag that it's been "x" years since he last read a book. I believe he's up to 12 years now. This is so foreign to me; I don't even go 12 hours without reading (including overnight).

 

My children are shaping up to be readers. We'll see.

[Tanaqui]

We all read a lot in this family.

I tell people that my parents valued reading and they say things like "Yes, my parents thought reading was important too, we went to the library every few weeks" and then I go "No, I mean, we went to the bookstore every week even if that meant we ate nothing but ramen noodle soup and Kraft mac & cheese every day" and they think I'm joking. I am not.

 

And I had no complaints about this either. Seriously, none. I would have been happy enough to subsist off of ramen forever if that meant I could have one more book.

 

We have our priorities slightly more in order with the girls, and I haven't served them ramen noodle soup ever, but... we still all read a lot. One of my fondest memories of when they were little is sitting on the floor with a book and little toddlers sitting next to me with their own books, and we just sat and read (or, in their cases, looked at the pictures) for a good hour or so before they got bored.

[Baseball mom]

Me -- all the time. Reading and breathing go together.  Love to read and always have a book or kindle with me

 

Mom -- don't remember her reading (except for the daily newspaper) while I was growing up.  She read to me when I was young but don't remember her reading a book for herself.  Now that she has retired from work she reads all the time.

 

Dad -- only remember him reading the daily newspaper

 

Step mom -- read ALOT and if we went to the mall it was guaranteed we stopped at the bookstore and she would buy me at least 1 book.

 

Stepdad -- daily newspaper and sport magazines

 

Maternal grandmother read ALOT.  Paternal grandmother - no.  Grandfathers -- no

 

Dh -- only the daily paper and not even daily

 

Dss --  no.  Well sometimes they will but not to often

[Stacia]

My parents are both voracious readers (books mostly, but also newspapers; my dad also likes magazines like Smithsonian). I am too. My sister (the youngest in the family) couldn't wait to read when she was little because she said she felt left-out when the others of us were busy reading. She became mega-reader amplified once she learned to read, lol.

 

I read a lot (often including a cereal box if there's nothing else), mostly books, once in awhile magazines or online news.

 

Both of my kids read a lot (mostly books).

[Maus]

My mom is a voracious reader.  She got us each library cards as soon as we were allowed, and we never went to the library less than once a week.  She and I share the same addiction to buying books, to the dismay of our respective husbands.

 

My late father didn't read quite as much, and didn't care for fiction, but it's from him I learned to read in the bathroom.  (He always kept the Reader's Digest in there.)  My brothers are avid readers, too.  When he died last year, my inheritance was about 600 books loosely relating to the field of genealogy.

 

I'm such a voracious reader that my dad would often put my books in time out as a punishment.  He'd put them on the shelf in his closet and tell me how much trouble I'd be in if I got them down.  So I'd climb up and sit on the shelf and read them there!

 

DH is dyslexic.  Reading is exhausting for him, though he'll read stuff related to his field of expertise (computers) or hobbies (inc. Barbershop Harmony).  He likes to listen to audio books and he used to read aloud to the kids.

 

My kids aren't big readers, between inherited dyslexia and ASD.  DS only reads non-fiction unless assigned.  DD11 likes stories and will read things like American Girls, but prefers audio books.  Little one is just learning, so I don't know yet.  

[RoughCollie]

In our family, we all read a lot. I will never forget the Saturday morning that it was quiet, and I looked around the room and each of us was reading a book. The kids must have been around 6 or 7 years old. Neighbors used to call our home "the library" because we have so many books. When I was growing up, my mom, sister and I read a lot. My brother read only nonfiction until he complained to me about being bored in a tree stand, waiting for a deer to stroll by, and I mailed him a book I thought he'd like (Chiefs, by Stuart Woods). Since then, he reads a lot of fiction.

 

When I finish a book, I feel at loose ends ... cast adrift. Thank goodness for my Kindle -- I take it everywhere and can only fall asleep while reading it. It is my most valuable possession. I read about 260 books a year. I keep a list of every book I read so I don't accidentally start reading one I've already read. I read a lot fewer books when my kids were young, of course.

[Tanaqui]

Thank goodness for my Kindle -- I take it everywhere and can only fall asleep while reading it.

 

 

 

 

Wizards love words. Most of them read a great deal, and indeed one strong sign of a potential wizard is the inability to get to sleep without reading something first. But their love for and fluency with words is what makes wizards a force to be reckoned with. Their ability to convince a piece of the world -- a tree, say, or a stone -- that it's not what it thinks it is, that it's something else, is the very heart of wizardry. Words skillfully used, the persuasive voice, the persuading mind, are the wizard's most basic tools. With them a wizard can stop a tidal wave, talk a tree out of growing, or into it-freeze fire, bum rain -- even slow down the death of the Universe.

 

 

That last, of course, is the reason there are wizards. See the next chapter.

 

 

Sorry, just had the sudden urge to quote one of my all-time favorite books from childhood at you.

 

I was, of course, much too sensible when the Harry Potter books came out, and too grown-up to wait up for my Hogwarts letter, but you can *bet* I said the Oath and waited for my book to turn into a Manual. (It never did.)

 

[emmaluv+2more]

I am a reader. I love...LOVE...books.

 

My mother is also a reader. I can remember her reading to me often, but only before I was able to read myself; then the reading aloud ceased.

 

I don't know my father, but from what I can remember I would say that he likely doesn't even bother to read street signs as he is driving by them.

 

My sister is definitely not a fan of books. I think she wanted to be, for a time, but that time has passed.

 

My children's father is not a reader. He would read a magazine on occasion, but that is the extent of it.

 

I have 4 daughters. My oldest, 11, is a voracious reader, even more so than myself.

 

My 8 year old does not understand her sister's obsession whatsoever. She reads books when there is nothing else to do. She still loves to be read to.

 

My newly turned 6 year old is only beginning to read. She likes to be read to, but I already don't notice the love of books that I saw in my 11 year old by that age.

 

My 2 year old is obsessed with books. My hopes are high for her.

 

I read aloud to my children daily and our home is full of books. Readers are born, not bred.

[Ausmumof3]

My mum was and my dad to some degree. My dh isn't. My first kid is the others are getting there. I am not great at reading long non fiction informational type texts unless there is a story line. My reading is fluffier now than it used to be but I have less fully focussed time.

[Jenny in Florida]

Yes, I'm a reader. Over the years, I've gone through phases of reading more or less, depending on what else is going on in my life, but I've always read what most people would consider "a lot." This year, I've read about 50 books so far, much -- but not all -- of it fluff.

 

My husband used to read quite a bit, but he has read less since electronic devices have taken over our lives. Part of this is lifestyle, too, to be fair. When we lived in the northeast and commuted to work by train for an hour a day, that was an easy time for him to spend reading. Once we moved to Florida and he started driving himself to work, that opportunity was lost. (He's not a fan of audiobooks.) He does still read, but it tends to be in smaller chunks, often on his phone over lunch or while waiting for a meeting to start or something like that.

 

My father was a reader; he read a couple of newspapers every day, a regular selection of magazines (especially the New Yorker) and usually had a book going, too.  My mother apparently had been a big reader when she was younger, but once she became a mom and was working, she read much less. I don't actually remember seeing her with a book in her hands other than occasionally before she went to sleep. She did browse through a few magazines like Time and Newsweek, to which they subscribed.

 

Both of my kids were big readers growing up. My son took off a little later than my daughter did, but both were the kinds of kids who never left the house without at least one book, just in case they got a few minutes to read. For a number of years while we were homeschooling, each of us brought a book to the breakfast table, and we would share snippets of things that made us laugh or that we found interesting from our assorted individual reading.

 

Thus far, each of them has kind of slacked off on reading for pleasure during and, in my daughter's case, for a while after college. My son "reads" online when he's doing research on things that interest him, and he keeps up with the required reading for his courses (mostly), but I rarely see him reading a book for pleasure these days. My daughter sort of came out of her funk last year, remembering that she loves to read, and has been intentional about making time in her life for it again. So, I have hope that my son will return to the fold, too, once he finishes school and has the mental energy to devote to it.

 

 

Edited August 18, 2016 by Jenny in Florida

[LostSurprise]

I am a reader, always have been, and remember well the curiosity and mental craving that started me reading at age 3/4. I was not surrounded by books. We had one tiny bookshelf which was mostly filled by my father's accounting textbooks. Now I have shelves and shelves. When dh and I got married, Bro2 shook dh's hand and said, "congratulations! Now I never have to move her books again. Thank you."

 

My mom isn't a reader. She's very good with her hands and fills her time with making things. 

 

My dad will read but always has to have an practical reason to read something. 

 

Siblings: 

 

Bro1: Never was a reader. Considered it a waste of time. Very intelligent. I'm not sure if it was the books available in grade school or how slow reading felt to him, but it didn't click. Now, as an adult, Bro2 got him hooked on Robert Jordan and other monstrous fantasy novels. I'm not sure I would call him a reader (he lacks some of the craving of a reader IMO), but he does read at least a few books a year. 

 

Sis: Never was a reader. Very social. Too busy. But her daughter is a huge reader. I love buying her books. 

 

Bro2: Six years younger than me. I read to this kid for ages. Is a reader. Loves fantasy and light science fiction. At least several books a year. 

 

 

Family: 

 

DH: Wasn't a reader when we met. Asked me to recommend 2 books he had to read before we married. (Be still my heart.) Loves to be read to. Has concentration issues but has found he likes to fall asleep reading. Slow progress. Sort of a reader. 

 

DS1: Early reader but usually can't be bothered. 

DS2: Reader! 

DS3: Very active and social. Started out hating reading but I believe I've brought him around. Picky about books. Needs external motivation. 

DS4: Cognitive disabilities but loves to be read to.

[BarbecueMom]

I used to be. I get irrationally angry at being interrupted when reading, and I generally need a 3+ hour block of time to focus on it. I can't do the chapter-a-day thing or stop-in-the-middle-of-the-chapter thing anymore. Oddly, I don't get upset about being interrupted when doing anything else.

 

I realized I was giving the kids excessive amounts of screen time just so I could read a book or snapping at them when they needed me mid-chapter. So I put the books away, for now.

 

Some day the kids will be bigger or I'll have more help and I can read again.

[shawthorne44]

My dad wasn't.   He is blind in one-eye, so he can read fine but it is tiring.  Normally your eyes take turns being primary.   My mother must have been,   I don't remember ever seeing mom read, but we went to the library weekly and she left me to pick out books while she looked in the adult section, so she must have read.   

 

I think my being a voracious reader had more to do with not having anyone to play with outside as a small kid, not really liking the outdoors, and only one TV in the house that was off during most hours.  

 

OP, I remember how proud I was of my first library card, and it was based on being able to write your name.   I was quite young and I only knew how to write great big letters so my name took up the entire card.  

[Bluegoat]

I am a reader.  My parents were too, to some extent - my mom tends to be a bit OCD with things like housework, which means she sometimes has a hard time sitting down with a book, but she always had something she was reading.  My dad also read and reads a fair bit, when his medications don't make it hard foor him. 

 

My husband is not huge reader - he does read, but he is on the slow side, so it tends to be when he is on vacation or has some time to dedicate to it.  )Though, he reads a lot of technical stuff for work.)

 

My oldest girl, who is 11, is a reader.  My dd8 is showing some signs, though she still prefers story books to chapter type books.  My ds6 is not reading yet, though he'll look through books at the pictures.

 

My maternal grandparents both read - my gf mostly history and technical things, and REader's Digest type stuff.  My Nana read quite a lot of literature, mystery novels, anything set in England.  She loved the Poldark novels.

 

My paternal gm was not a huge reader I don't think though she did read a lot of romance novels as she got older.  But before that it just may have been lack of time.  My gf was a professional writer and a pretty voracious reader - his house was always full of newspapers going back for years, and books he was reviewing.  He loved Kipling, Burns, Robert Service, a lot of his reading was very masculine.

 

I actually don't think people need to be "readers" so long as they can read - there are lots of other useful things people can do in their spare time.

 

Edited August 18, 2016 by Bluegoat

[Tanaqui]

I actually don't think people need to be "readers" so long as they can read - there are lots of other useful things people can do in their spare time.

 

I agree. It's really weird, but our society thinks it's normal to expect loving reading to be a reasonable parenting and pedagogical goal. We don't expect all children to love volleyball just because the gym teacher is a fan, or all children to love knitting just because Dad likes to knit, but reading? Geez.

 

I like to read plenty, and I know that there is value in literacy and value in understanding common references*, but people are allowed to have their own opinions.

 

* Not all of which are hi-falutin' and literary. It's just as important to know what I mean when I say "9/11" or "He was so jaundiced, he looked like Bart Simpson" as to know what I mean when I refer to a "David and Goliath story" or "Romeo and Juliet".

[JessieC]

I am a reader. It's pretty  much my only hobby. I would rather read than do anything and have always been like this.

 

My parents are both readers, though they never read much to me--probably because I was reading independently pretty early.

 

My children are readers as well--older dd especially. I have never met a child who reads as much and as fast as she does. My ds loves to read graphic novels, comic books like Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes, etc., but not as many chapter books. I don't push or reward reading at all in my house and never have--I think it is just natural to them because learning to read came easily so it was never "work" and we have a constant stream of interesting books from the library. Maybe a little laziness there too--they are not kids with a lot of physical energy or desire to be outside unless friends are over or something.