Was it your childhood? School? A specific book or author? Wattpad fanfiction? Booktok? Tell me your story of how you became a reader!
Personally, I got into reading when my kindergarten teacher started sending me home with Junior B. Jones books. As I got older, the Series of Unfortunate Events, the Clique Series, & Harry Potter all grew my love for reading. I stopped reading for fun in college, but found my way back into it when I got tired of scrolling one night. I randomly decided to read the Handmaids Tale to keep me awake while I was nursing my baby. Coming back to recreational reading as an adult has been a beautiful, awesome experience. Just curious about others experiences with reading throughout life!
by sleepygirl2997
27 Comments
I was a toddler and my mum used to read me “Each Peach Pear Plum” all the time. It was the 90s and my local library was down the road. My mum used to take me every single week to get a whole batch of new books. When I was a very small child she would sit and read with me until I could read by myself.
I’ve been reading as long as I can remember. I think a big part of it was seeing my mother reading a lot in her spare time, and seeing her bookcase filled with worlds to explore! I must’ve wondered what was so interesting and decided to find out for myself.
The Babysitter’s Club, Sweet Valley Twins, and The Boxcar Children were my go tos in elementary school. From there I read Star Trek novelizations, Stephen King, Harry Potter, and started getting into fantasy series in high school, when I read Wheel of Time, Sword of Truth, Kushiel’s Dart, and Shannara. I read a variety of things as an English major in college and did a Kafka seminar. I started tracking my reading on Goodreads in around 2014 and have read about 650 books since then in a wide variety of genres. I’ve also written and posted over three million words of fanfiction and am hoping to write my own books.
I read a lot of comic books and Dr. Seuss as a child, then after seeing the animated hobbitt movie motivated me to read the book. The rest is history.
Grew up with parents reading to me, and I lived next door to the library and I was allowed to go there by myself since I was four. So books were always there.
Being taught through explanation and repetition to understand symbolic written language.
My mom started me reading very young, and I honestly can’t remember a time when I didn’t read. I read during nap time in Pre-K and every free minute I had for my entire childhood. I spent hours at the library every single day (I was homeschooled for most of it) and books became a way for me to escape my very strict religious home. My mom was not a reader, my Dad was but growing up I rarely saw him read anything other than the Bible. I’m not sure why I gravitated towards reading but I’m grateful because I learned so much about the world and myself from books, not to mention it gave me an excuse to be somewhere else most of the time
I’ve always thought it was fun. For me, it’s as simple as that. I’ve been a voracious reader since I was in grade school.
Morpurgo’s novel Private Peaceful was the first book I really found compelling enough to keep me thinking about it after I was done reading it.
Pure escapism! My childhood wasn’t that great, I lost myself in books.
My gran taught me to read. We used to go on walks when I was little, there was always signs in people’s windows that said “no toxic tip” – my town at the time was protesting plans to allow toxic waste at our local tip.
So yeah that’s the first words I learnt to read too
My mom. She loved books and read a lot. She taught me how to read before I even started school. I loved it, too and never stopped reading.
I’m the youngest of 7. I have no memory of being read to, but all of my family were/ are major league into books. Plus my mom was an elementary school teacher.
I have a distinct memory of finding Dick and Jane books in the attic and trying to read them.
When I was full bore into reading, I devoured books from the library, which was across the street. All the Nancy Drew, of course.
being overly addicted to screen time…
was called up for jury duty. cellphones weren’t allowed so i had to entertain myslef somehow. on the way, i stopped at a local bookstore and told the lady i needed something good to read for jury duty and she handed me Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
i’ve been an avid reader since
My grandmother was an English professor so she inculcated a reading habit in her kids, which just stuck with my mom. And my mom inculcated a reading habit in me.
So I was reading a lot of Enid Blyton, Three Investigators etc as a kid and then progressed to more serious stuff when I got older. Also took some lit classes in college which got me into literary fiction.
My dad was also into comics so I was reading those too as a kid.
My Mom read to me & my brothers all the time. I learned to read when I was 3 and she says I just loved to read my little toddler books but The Baby-Sitters club books turned me into an avid reader, I was 6 when the first one came out and I was hooked. My Dad always made sure to buy me the newest book every month
Scholastic book orders! That feeling when it was delivery day and my name was called and all those new books I’d almost forgotten about we’re delivered to me like it was my birthday? Few experiences as an adult have felt that good!
Book fairs were more of the same. Walk in with that crisp $20 (I’m old! It was a lot back then!) and walking out loaded with be books. So good! I do that today at Barnes & Noble on the regular, too. 😉
I love reading, always have, and I’ll never stop!
My dad was a teacher so he taught me syllables as a toddler and then I just randomly unlocked reading at 4-5yo. I used to have a tiny edition of The Little Match Girl I kept in my pocket everywhere I went so when my grandma dropped me off at kindergarten early and when I waited for her to pick me up, I was reading it. I’ve never stopped since then.
I remember in elementary school, my teacher punished me and put me in the corner between the open door and the wall bcs I was reading instead of listening to him. What did I do in the corner? I kept reading 😭😭 He came to see me behind the door and he wasn’t even mad, he just asked what the book was abt since it was more interesting than his lesson. Idr the title but it was abt the moon turning into a white pearl and a fisherman finding it or smth like that.
My mother loves to read and read to me pretty much from the moment I was born. I was reading on my own at a very young age, had all the books read from elementary school before I went as my older brother would take them home from school. I would then read anything I could get my hands on and pretty much never stopped!
Necessity and escape. As a child who grew up before video games internet etc reading was encouraged in my home it was almost the only thing besides drawing we were allowed to do inside the house actually.
Mom used to read to my sister and I when we were little. I specifically remember her reading Astrid Lindgren and the Narnia series
My mom was a reader, so she gave me her childhood books when I was little. I learned to read by watching PBS before I started school.
I am an introvert and a dreamer. Reading was easier and more interesting for me than spending time in the company of other people. It was like that since childhood. Plus, there were a lot of books at home, because my parents also liked to read.
My mom read to my brother and I every night before we were even born! One of the only things that was positive in my childhood was reading and being read to, and my parents didn’t censor what I read, and went with the mindset of “if you can read and understand a book, there is no reason to keep it from you” so I was reading adult fiction in first grade lol (hyperlexic autistic child). Books were my first special interest and my family was big on reading, you could not get my nose out of a book. Some of my faves were the Magic Tree House series, the Wish Bone retellings of classics, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
The first book I ever read on my own was Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis. My parents didn’t know I could read yet and when my dad was cleaning up our yard, I was sitting in our Jetta with the door open just engulfed in the book, and he was super confused when I was able to read it aloud to him. Apparently my brother did the same thing when he started reading lmao
I don’t remember a time before I was, so I can’t say. Definitely fully book reading before beginning school at age 4.
Twilight series while I was balancing being full time at two schools at 19
My older brother used to let me watch him play old Final Fantasy games and RPG’s—- he’d do all the voices and be very dramatic. I couldn’t read yet and seeing those dramatic stories made me realize there was more to reading- just heart wrenching stories. It was the one benefit to games not having voice acting back then— I became very motivated to read because to play those games you needed to read.
Got really into fantasy and historical fiction and by 3rd-4th grade I was reading way above my grade level to find things that matched my interest. It probably wasn’t age appropriate watching FFVl which dealt with topics like genocide and suicide at 7-8 years old… then have my teacher recommend the baby sitters club. I somehow grew up without being too twisted though.