When growing up did your family share your love of books? If so, did one person get you into reading? And, do you have any family-oriented memories with books and reading? (Family trips to bookstore, reading the same book as a sibling or parent, etc.)
For a few years, my family didn't have a television (by choice). There was nothing to do BUT read.
My mom read stories to my sister and me at bedtime. We kept choosing the same ones over and over, and she started changing the stories. It made me so mad that I learned to read for myself. Reading out of spite!
My grandfather gave me a giant book of fairy tales when I was four or five. I still have it. He was a big reader.
My grandmother gave me a big box of Nancy Drews that she'd bought at a garage sale for my eighth birthday. When we moved down here, we lived with my grandparents for about a month until our house was ready. It was there that I first read Gone with the Wind.
My parents would buy my sister and me books for road trips (there were lots of road trips). That's probably why I hate driving myself, because I can't read in the car like I used to.
Finally, we take family trips to B&N. After movies, while we're waiting for my sister to finish shopping at the mall, before we go to dinner. We literally spend hours there, "stealing" books.
Ms. Mei Flower
- Mei
- I'm a spinster schoolmarm with a degree in English; I watch artsy movies about British people; I knit while watching the History Channel; I listen to NPR in the car; I eat frozen dinners on the couch. Is that stereotypical enough for you? No? Well, then ... and I have a cat.
Reading
8 comments:
arghh I was never able to read in cars!! that's why I love driving:P
That's a really great post!! I think it's great that your family was such a good influence on your reading!
Back when I was a kid, we didn't have cable, so it was basically like not having a TV at all, lol.
Like you, I also started with Nancy Drew at a young age. I read all of those books, plus the Hardy Boys. I was hooked on mysteries early, and still read that genre to this day!
Road trips: I, too, always had books for road trips. These days, I indulge in audiobooks while I'm driving. I don't listen to the radio much when I'm in the car, but I do pop in book CDs quite frequently.
You should give audiobooks a try -- they definitely help make driving a lot more interesting!
We didn't have a TV either, until I was about 11. It was probably a good thing!
LOL at learning to read out of spite!
The memories ... Nancy Drew books and reading in the car on road trips. Interesting how much of reading is truly a shared experience!
As much of an avid reader as my father was, he sure loved his TV. I can't imagine him without it. LOL
It wasn't until I married my husband and we decided to try a summer without television that I came to realize how much of a time leech TV was. It's become a sort of tradition for us not to watch TV in the summer other than those we watch on DVDs. During the "regular" TV season, we do watch TV, even have our favorite shows, but there's a part of me that is so happy to see them end because that means more reading time!
I just can't read in the car (when I'm a passenger of course), it makes me carsick. Audio books are good, except when I have to concentrate on the route and then I can't follow the story.
Wow...I keep meaning to get involved in this meme, and I keep forgetting. :(
Reading was really important in my growing-up years too. While my parents were missionaries overseas, we didn't have TV, and I know that played a huge part in me ending up a reading fanatic. But I was already a devout bookworm!
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