# Lifelong love of reading or new adventure??



## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

I cannot remember a time when reading wasn't my favorite thing in my life.... whether it was my mother and grandmother reading to me when I was very young..... or my reading every book I could get my hands on once I could read myself.  And yes, library day was WAY better than gym day in grade school!!  So, I'm curious about my fellow Kindleholics...... have you always loved to read or has it been a more recent discovery??


----------



## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

I have loved books as far back as I can remember. I grew up out in the country, so unless school was in session, I was pretty isolated from friends. We would go into town to the library every 2 weeks and when I ran out of things to read in the "junior" section, my mom started letting me get books from the adult section (her discretion of course). By the time I was in junior high, the librarian would let me check out 10-12 books at a time. I couldn't seem to get enough! My last few years in the workforce had caused my reading habit to be just about extinct. With the joining of a book club at my church 2 years ago and my retirement last year, I am happy to say that reading has returned and I am finding I can still get lost in a good book!


----------



## jah (Oct 28, 2008)

I have always love to read, I lost track of how many e book i had on my pc before I got Faith (kindle).
Jodi


----------



## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

My mom started me reading when I was very young, like 4 or so; I didn't go to kindergarten (wasn't really yet the "in", or required, thing to do when I was a kid), but by the time I started 1st grade, I was reading at something like a 4th or 5th grade level already. I was one of the nerds who went to the grade school library to check out books during the summer - 8 or 10 at a time, from the high grade levels. LOL Never lost my love for it since, been reading for 40 years.


----------



## Kirstin (Oct 29, 2008)

I can remember a slumber party in 7th grade where I sat in a corner and wouldn't participate in any games until I had finished the book I was reading!


----------



## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

How fun to hear your stories!!  I can see myself in each of them.  Kirstin.... I would have been reading right beside you at that slumber party!!  How great it is to find out that there are others like me in this world!!  Have any of you gone back and re-read books that were favorites of yours from your childhood?  Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (not available on Kindle yet - I keep clicking that button to the publisher) was one of my childhood favorites and I just re-read it.... afraid that it would not be as wonderful as I remembered it.  But, I was amazed to find that it was as enchanting as it had been when I was very young... and it helped me re-connect with the young girl I once was.  So I encourage you to re-visit a favorite childhood book just for fun.


----------



## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

The first book I bought with my own money was Harry Potter the Goblet of Fire (which I still have, but is very abused). By the time I finished the fifth grade I read the entire Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books the school had in addition to every American Girls' Collection book, Harry Potter, and Hobbit/Lord of the Rings. In seventh grade, I discovered manga and that collection has stopped growing with the discovery of online manga. I still have several popular series in Japanese. By the eighth grade, I owned 30+ Star Wars books. I remember times my mom had to ground me from reading, because I would spend too much time reading rather than studying and paying attention in class. Come to find out I knew my stuff but lacked the motivation to partake in class those couple of years in school. I was too busy in my own world or in a book.


----------



## Kirstin (Oct 29, 2008)

PraiseGod13 said:


> How fun to hear your stories!! I can see myself in each of them. Kirstin.... I would have been reading right beside you at that slumber party!! How great it is to find out that there are others like me in this world!! Have any of you gone back and re-read books that were favorites of yours from your childhood? Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (not available on Kindle yet - I keep clicking that button to the publisher) was one of my childhood favorites and I just re-read it.... afraid that it would not be as wonderful as I remembered it. But, I was amazed to find that it was as enchanting as it had been when I was very young... and it helped me re-connect with the young girl I once was. So I encourage you to re-visit a favorite childhood book just for fun.


 I loved Judy Blume novels as a pre-teen (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret; Blubber; Then Again, Maybe I Won't) ....and The Borrowers series ...and Where the Red Fern Grows... ....and Nancy Drew mysteries... ...and Black Beauty.... and I loved reading about Greek and Norse mythology...

Maybe I will have to revisit some of them!


----------



## Jen (Oct 28, 2008)

I was a huge nerd when I was younger, I never wanted to go out and play with my friends - I wanted to stay home and read.  I think I read every VC Andrews and Stephen King novel available back in middle school.  I kept reading all through high school.  
However, when I went to college I stopped reading for pleasure.  I think that's pretty normal, after hours a day reading textbooks I could find no pleasure in it.  It took me a few years after college to get full fledged back into it.  It's about 6 years later, and I'm back to being the book nerd I have always been!


----------



## Buttercup (Oct 28, 2008)

For me this is really a new adventure!  My sister and mom are and always have been avid readers but after childhood I didn't read much.  Just a book here or there, I have read and love Harry Potter and my usual books of choice are from Dean Koontz, James Patterson & John Saul.  Post Kindle I've been reading much more and have also tried things that I normally wouldn't have even thought about.  It's very exciting!

I do remember loving the Judy Blume & Beverly Cleary books as a child but one book that stands out from my childhood was Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell.  I'm not sure how many times I read that one but I know I read it several times.  Too bad it's not available for Kindle or I'd probably buy it and read it again!


----------



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

PraiseGod13 said:


> Have any of you gone back and re-read books that were favorites of yours from your childhood? Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (not available on Kindle yet - I keep clicking that button to the publisher) was one of my childhood favorites and I just re-read it.... afraid that it would not be as wonderful as I remembered it. But, I was amazed to find that it was as enchanting as it had been when I was very young... and it helped me re-connect with the young girl I once was. So I encourage you to re-visit a favorite childhood book just for fun.


Yes, I've read Five Little Peppers and How They Grew many times. Most recently last year. My mother read it to me until I could read it myself.

I've always loved to read. My mother and I used to go to the beach nearly every day. She always had a book. I remember making the decision to read because my mother did; a decision I have never regretted. Well, maybe I regretted that I loved reading to the exclusion of my DH; maybe.


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I re-read my childhood favorites all the time. I have lost count of how many times I have read *Harriet the Spy* and *The Long Secret*. I read my collected Nancy Drews on a regular basis, too.

L


----------



## quiltlvr (Oct 28, 2008)

gertiekindle said:


> Yes, I've read Five Little Peppers and How They Grew many times.


Wow, I forgot all about that one, I don't even remember what it was about, but do remember loving it. I'll have to read it again soon.

I remember one time at school our teacher got the Scholastic book order in & they sent an extra book. She said that the first person to bring her 65cents the next day could buy it. I got to school early & waited for the teacher to arrive. I was suprised that no one else was there waiting.
Lisa


----------



## Susan B (Oct 27, 2008)

I've read since the age of four and in later years I'd go to the library once a week and stock up on books. One of the best birthday presents I ever had was membership in a Sci/Fi book club. I was so thrilled to get a book each month! My first sci/fi book was "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury. Oh! and I remember sneaking into my big brother's bedroom to sneak read "Peyton Place." My mom would have had a fit if she had known.


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I remember, I couldn't wait to go to first grade and learn how to read. I kept begging my mother to teach me but she didn't know how or what to do. She did read to me, of course. This was back in the dark ages before Sesame Street or anything like that! I did go to nursery school and kindergarten but they didn't actually do much teaching. Nursery school was like day care with lots of playtime. I think in kindergarten I learned the alphabet. Then I got to first grade, started reading and I haven't quit since.

L


----------



## tc (Oct 29, 2008)

Can not remember a day that I haven't read.  Mom tells me that I had to be read to or I put up a fuss.  Come to think of it, if someone talks to me when I am reading I still put up a fuss.


----------



## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

Hi TC... love the avatar! I am a fellow Astros fan!
Angela


----------



## Dori (Oct 28, 2008)

I read books as a child and still remember both of them.  Peter Rabbit (have in on my Kindle now) and Little Women (gonna download it and read again).  Never occurred to me that you could read a book from cover to cover.  There was no library in our little town, no books in our home so books were not on my radar.  It took a Kindle to turn on my reading gene.


----------



## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

Dori..... I'm so glad your Kindle ignited your reading gene!!  You make me realize how blessed I was growing up.  We didn't have $$ to have many books at home, and our main library was downtown so I never went there.... but we had a little branch neighborhood library two blocks from my home that I walked to all the time.... my "home-away-from-home".  Also, my grade school was built of stone and had "turrets" at two of the corners.  My 6th grade classroom had one of the turrets and they had built a very small library in it for us.  If you got your work done early.... you earned reading time in our little "private" turret library, and I can remember to this day... the feeling of sitting in that little round, cozy area and reading Blue Willow and Brighty of the Grand Canyon.  
    The Five Little Peppers - The Bobbsey Twins - Nancy Drew - Little Women - great reading!!!


----------



## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I had three aunts (my father's sisters) and from a very young age, they would all give me books on my birthday and for Christmas. So I had a wonderful collection of hardcover books...usually Newberry Prize winners or other great reads. I still have many of them.

Our town didn't have a library but the next town over did. It was too far to walk but when I was in fourth grade (I think) my mother decided I was old enough to ride my bike there. The first time I did, I took out one book, went home and read the thing inside of an hour. Now I was faced with another 20 minute bike ride to the library to get another one! I learned my lesson that time...check out multiple books. LOL

L


----------



## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

LOL, Leslie!!  What a great mental picture!!  You on your bike transporting your books!  I would have needed one of those double baskets that went over the back fender of your bike.... like the paperboys used to use.  I always had MANY library books - just like potato chips - couldn't have just one!!!


----------



## tc (Oct 29, 2008)

Mom and Dad bought books for my brother and I plus we did the Bookmobile thing,(it ran all year).  I remember my Dad reading James A. Michener and wondered how you could read a book that big.  It wasn't long that I was doing the same.  The first book that I bought with my own money was The Hobbit, I still have that copy.  One of the favorite I give at Christmas are books and everybody gets one.  I am really glad that I don't remember a time that reading was not a part of my life.  I think that life would have been much harder.

Angela,  Houston has been my team since 1962 when they their first game as a new team, the Colt .45's, in the outdoor park.  I am not from Houston but Louisiana but I love them just like they were my hometown team.


----------



## sjc (Oct 29, 2008)

Lifelong...since the first grade.  Where else can you become whichever character you so choose and be transported anywhere the story takes you for the average price of tops 9.99 and sometimes even for free.


----------



## Yollo (Nov 10, 2008)

Lifelong, it's always been that way. Never a time in my life when I wasn't an avid reader.

however, this is a new adventure for me with the kindle and making the transition to ereaders. I swore up and down I would never make the change, yet here I am, persuaded and shaking with anticipation for my Kindle to arrive. (2 to 3 more weeks - AHH!)

So, in short, for me its both.


----------



## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

How exciting for you Kimblee!!  You won't be disappointed!!!  I was one of the people who feared that I would miss the feel and experience of dead tree books.  It took me less than 5 minutes of having my Kindle to get over that.  And now you can think about a name for your Kindle.... and consider accessories such as covers..... and choose books for your Kindle (don't forget that there are websites with free books available)..... and on and on.  This site is really helpful and is a great bunch of people..... and we DO love our Kindles!!!  Welcome to the klub and get ready for a new, awesome reading experience!!


----------



## Yollo (Nov 10, 2008)

Thanks PraiseGod13, I still can't get over how nice and friendly everybody is here. Unlike any board I've ever been on. And trust me, I'm fully in swing of planning every last detail about my Kindle. The thing is, I've spent ALL DAY looking at stuff and bookmarking sites that I fear I'm going to run out of things to do! MUST KEEP SELF OCCUPIED FOR TWO WEEKS AND NOT OBSESS ABOUT KINDLE!


----------



## Mom of 4 (Oct 27, 2008)

Have always read, and now I want to go back an re-read... 
Five Little Peppers, OMG I LOVED that!
and VC Andrews... boy are those creepy books that I devoured!
The Secret Garden  and A Little Princess...

and the TBR list grows and grows!!


----------



## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

Enjoy returning to your childhood favorites Mom of 4!!!  And be sure to share them with your kids too!!  My TBR list was getting so complicated I finally made myself a spreadsheet to get it organized.  It's still lengthy..... but in alphabetical order at least.  HA!!


----------



## Mom of 4 (Oct 27, 2008)

PraiseGod13 said:


> Enjoy returning to your childhood favorites Mom of 4!!! And be sure to share them with your kids too!!


ABSOLUTELY! We love reading together! In the past year my older boys and I have read: Indian in the Cupboard, Wayside School, Tom Sawyer (abridged), Mr. Poppers Penguins and my personal favorite, Where the Red Fern Grows. (My 10 year old had to read the last chapter to us because I was too busy crying/sobbing to read out loud!)


----------



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Mom of 4 said:


> Five Little Peppers, OMG I LOVED that!


I just found out last year that there were sequels to this book. And not too long ago, I watched a couple of Five Little Peppers movies on TCM. Phronsie was so perfect.


----------



## rla1996 (Oct 28, 2008)

Lifetime for me... I've always been an avid reader.  Before I could read my mom would read to me every night before bed.  The handfull of times she didn't have time or had something she had to do, I would cry until either she finished what she was doing and could or i fell asleep (which rarely happened).  I was always their child who preferred to read instead of watching TV or playing outside.  At school I'd even spend recess in the library if possible.  I'd even read in the car when were going to or from somewhere.  I'd even take it as far as using the headlights of the cars behind us for light at night.  Because all I ever did was read my parents had a hard time disciplining me for things like fighting with my sisters.  They couldn't tell me no TV, no video games, on outside time or even send me to my room (I had lots of books there).  So like Vegas_Asian's parents they would ground me from reading -something my sisters thought was unfair, because I still got to watch TV and go outside.  Not that it ever lasted long my parents were so happy that i liked to read that the punishment soon became no reading before bed (i was allowed half an hour after bedtime everynight to read, as long as i was in my bed).  For me reading stuck through out the years, even when I was in college i still read for pleasure.  Before I got my Kindle I ALWAYS had a book with me, no matter where I was going visiting someone, the grocery store, baseball games, movies, rock concerts -wherever.  Sometimes I'd have several because I was nearing the end of the one I was reading and wasn't sure which i was going to start next.  No I carry them all in my Kindle and LIFE IS GOOD!!!


----------



## Cowgirl (Nov 1, 2008)

Lifetime reader...My mother had to kick me out of the house in the summer to go out to play.  I just wanted to be alone with my books and escape into whatever book I was reading...

The first book I remember reading was Strawberry Girl by Lois Lensky


----------



## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

I started really reading on my own in 6th grade (70s) with _The Tomb and Other Tales_ by H.P. Lovecraft, then on to _Frankenstein_ and science fiction I remember the teacher trying to get me reading more "age appropriate" books-something about a little boy on a wagons west journey-but the jejune stories for and about kids never interested me and I continued to read what I wanted to read. I have slight memories of other readings before that, but only slight and perfunctory.


----------

