Confessions of a former obsessed child reader

As a reward for behaving at the grocery store my mom would take me to the library afterward and let me pick out three books.  Guessing, I would say that I was around eight at the time.  As I got older she would just drop me off there (she knew the librarian) and I would stay while she shopped.  I loved grocery days.  Between the local library and my school library I read my way through the Nancy Drew books, then took on the Hardy Boys.  I progessed in to Sweet Valley High and RL Stine. 

It wasn't until I was thirteen that I started going in to the adult section of the library.  And then when I did I was told that "A Tale of Two Cities" was too much of a read for a "little thing" like myself.  (rolls eyes)  It probably was, but I wasn't about to let someone tell me that I couldn't read my way through a book. 

I remember stealing mom's copies of the Little House on the Prairie books and also swiping her copy of Christy.  By the time I made it to high school and we were given a reading list to pick books from by our teacher I was soooo excited.  Every other kid in the class groaned.  When I chose Watership Down and then The Hobbit my teacher looked at me skeptically.  Everyone else was chosing smaller books.  Afterall, we only had six weeks to read them.  I explained to the teacher that I would have the books finished within the permitted time, but she didn't seem to trust me.  Not only had I finished them, but I had also read - on my own The Odessy and had started in on The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Silly teacher.  Needless to say I was her favorite that year.  lol

I would say that my choices growing up always ventured to sci-fi or adventure.  I loved books that took me to different places.  But as I learned it didn't matter what I read, so long as I was reading.  It's not that I didn't like being around other people I just happened to like the people in the books better than the people in real life.  Sigh....

I had an unhappy childhood and books were my escape from realism. Of course that hasn't changed to this day. But now I understand why I didn't really have friends except in the books I read and my school librarian. I read every Nancy Drew our school had and then the Hardy Boys and anything else I could get my hands on. Then I moved on to Agatha Christie and kept going into more and more adult books. Some were rather scary but I loved that. I can still remember some that scared the heck out of me. The Mephisto Waltz Fred Mustard Stewart, and so many more.

I was the same way.  Walter Farley and certain horse books.  Ursula LeGuin.  Hermann Hesse.  Agatha Christie.  I am sure there are more I can't remember off the top of my head.  I vacillated between wanting to explore new books and also explore favorite authors.

but I definitely made my way through our school library.  Loved going to the public library or spending my allowance in a bookstore.

Read a LOT growing up . . . had a nice childhood, good parents, friends, siblings and so on. So I don't think I was escaping anything but I did get to experience new things through books. I always loved my books.  And my newspapers. And my magazines.  Loved organizing the books that I owned following the Dewey Decimal system LOL.

Penn, off to clean the kitchen and listen to more of FIRE STUDY

I too had the library as my home away from home.  The difference was that then I wanted to read the books at the library.  As a young adult, my library didn't have much science fiction/fantasy and that was what I read.  So I got out of the library habit.

Life was often chaotic when I was growing up and I had a challenging year in third grade. Fortunately the class was right across the hall from the school library. Our school would not transfer kids out if there was a child-teacher conflict so I would stay in the classroom long enough to complete an assignment and then I would go to the library. This meant I spent 25 minutes in the library to every 5 minutes in the class. I did a lot of reading that year. Many of you have already mentioned most of my favorite authors

My oldest started reading by 1st grade and she took off rapidly. My youngest watched as we worked hard to teach our middle child to read. What we didn't realize was that she was quietly obsorbing all the lessons and by age 4 was reading independently. By the age of 6 she was reading, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by E. Nesbit. This was a collection of his plays done in a prose format. She became the favorite of a volunteer at school who was a college level Shakespeare professor.

For a while both our readers were reading every sci-fi/fantasy book they could get their hands on. My dh had started them off on Tolkein. I introduced them to Alcott, Wilder and Montgomery and eventually Jane Austen. It has been fun watching them "take off" as readers.

I would check out 10 books at the libaray (the maximum allowed) and come back a week later and get more.

I dont remember all the books I read....from Harry the Dirty Dog to all of the Beverly Cleary books and beyond. I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull when I was like, 10. 

I remember one afternoon, I we werer visiting at my aunts house, and all the kids ( my cousins ) were out side playing....being loud and rambuncious like kids can be.  I was inside reading.....my aunt says "why dont you go outside and play with the other kids"?  I said "Im ok, I would rather sit here and read"...she said "ok, but its not normal"....she complained to my mom that I wouldnt go outside and play. ....my mom was like "she's reading. never discourage a kid from reading".

..my mom was like "she's reading. never discourage a kid from reading".

Your mom is cool. In my family, it was more like reading was weird. My brothers got more positive feedback for being good at sports than I did for reading, despite the fact that reading allowed me to get good grades while my brothers' were mediocre.

I was a voracious reader from the beginning also.  I remember learning to read from the Dick and Jane books.  My next real book memory is getting the first Bobbsey Twins book for Christmas in second grade.  That was the beginning.  From there it was Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys.  In middle school I was able to talk my study hall teacher into letting me help out in the library, where I was able to be the first one to get my hands on new books as they came into the library.  I read the whole Happy Hollisters series that way.  I also read my way through a whole series of career stories for girls.  The public library had a biography series called Childhood of Famous Americans (currently being reprinted in paperback) -- I read alot of those too.  When I got involved in a book, I didn't want to stop for anything, and would read anywhere - bathtub, schoolbus, by the light of the streetlamp outside my room....

In seventh grade I chose Gone With the Wind to read for a book report.  My teacher was somewhat doubtful, but I finshed it easily and wrote my book report on it (gaining an "I'm impressed" note from my teacher on it).  In high school I would finish whatever book we were reading in class long before the rest of them, and would read my own while they caught up.  I remember them reading "The Cay", a small book that took me one class period.  So I read "All Creatures Great and Small" -- and had a hard time not laughing hysterically at some parts, while the rest of the class was reading their boring old book.

My romance reading started around the age of 12 or so when I was babysitting for a lady who had a subscription to Harlequin Romance books -- I started out on Betty Neels, Margaret Way, and Violet Winspear.   I moved on to other authors as I got older.

I still read mainly romance, though I do read some other authors.  A high school friend got me hooked on Anne McCaffrey 30 years ago, and another friend got me hooked on Janet Evanovich.  The challenge blogs have managed to introduce me to other authors.  My biggest challenge these days is not buying new books as they come out -- I work in a bookstore, and I see the new ones before they even hit the sales floor .

I have been fortunate in that my husband is also a reader, though he doesn't have much time for it.  Both my kids are also readers, though my daughter is more of one than my son these days. 

I have a huge TBR list, and have put myself on a "book diet", buying only those autobuys until I have pared down the list a bit...

on reading in any format, I say, "Go for it!"  Debkc3 (of the D2K Paranormal Junkies -- click on their name in the "tags" cloud to find her quickly) has read a LOT of audio books that sounded really good.  Some she owns and some she got from the library but you might see if she can make some suggestions.  She recommended Harlan Coben to me (when I gave her credit, she passed it on to another blogger here but can't remember who) and I really enjoyed him (mysteries).

We got my b-i-l an MP3 player that wasn't an iPod so that he could download from his library (the downloads for libraries aren't for Macs or iPods) and he loves it -- gives him more choices for his long commute, especially if he's stuck at the "wrong" end of the commute with nothing to listen to for the drive home.

FWIW,

Penn 

I actually learned to read with Dr Sesus books.

I didnt get into romance novels till just before last years challenge.  I am catching up for lost time.

I have gotten a co-worker started on reading...I started her with Karen Marie Monings Highland books, then I gave her the Black Dagger Brother books, now she is reading the Anita Blake books....she has 3 to go, then I will start her on the Dark-Hunter books. ...she doesnt read as fast as I do, but she is hooked.

I got a male co-worker hooked on Anita Blake, then he moved out of state.

Now he will have to support his own habit.