My parents. It wasn't always a matter of inspiration either - they deliberately didn't get a telly til I was 14, thus forcing me to read loads 
Who/what inspired you to like reading?
- Thread starter Cloo
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scifisam
deleted
Not sure really. My siblings were all that much older than me (or close in age but lived mostly away from my home), that I was, practically speaking, an only child, and I read for company, I guess.
At the age of 5 I had a tested reading age of 16; the school brought an 'expert' in to give extra tests to me and one other girl.
This was probably the high point of my life's accomplishments.
It definitely wasn't my parents that caused this. My Dad was blind and couldn't read printed books. My Mum's semi-literate; she's now a qualified nurse but needs help with reading still. She sends me Christmas cards with amusing mis-spellings of 'London.' She mis-spells her own three-letter name. (Maybe she's dyslexic or something - either way, she can't read).
Years ago I stayed at my Mother's house just before and just after my daughter was born. None of my stuff was there - I'd put all my hundreds of books into storage.
One night, bored out of my mind and 7 days overdue, I prowled the house looking for something to read. There was nothing. Not one single book. No magazines, no newspapers, nothing at all. Once a week they bought the Sun for its TV guide, tore out the TV page and threw the rest away. It was shocking to realise just how little they were interested in a pastime I loved so much.
My daughter also loves reading, but she's an only child in a house full of books, so that's no surprise.
Primary school teachers definitely can encourage a love of reading. Think about it - the little kids are with this teacher for more of their waking hours than they are with their parents; that's a pretty big influence on their lives.
Secondary school teachers won't necessarily be able to make someone love reading who had never felt that way, but they can, sometimes encourage kids to continue reading at a time when that hobby is on the wane. (They can also do the opposite sometimes).
At the age of 5 I had a tested reading age of 16; the school brought an 'expert' in to give extra tests to me and one other girl.
This was probably the high point of my life's accomplishments.
It definitely wasn't my parents that caused this. My Dad was blind and couldn't read printed books. My Mum's semi-literate; she's now a qualified nurse but needs help with reading still. She sends me Christmas cards with amusing mis-spellings of 'London.' She mis-spells her own three-letter name. (Maybe she's dyslexic or something - either way, she can't read).
Years ago I stayed at my Mother's house just before and just after my daughter was born. None of my stuff was there - I'd put all my hundreds of books into storage.
One night, bored out of my mind and 7 days overdue, I prowled the house looking for something to read. There was nothing. Not one single book. No magazines, no newspapers, nothing at all. Once a week they bought the Sun for its TV guide, tore out the TV page and threw the rest away. It was shocking to realise just how little they were interested in a pastime I loved so much.
My daughter also loves reading, but she's an only child in a house full of books, so that's no surprise.
Primary school teachers definitely can encourage a love of reading. Think about it - the little kids are with this teacher for more of their waking hours than they are with their parents; that's a pretty big influence on their lives.
Secondary school teachers won't necessarily be able to make someone love reading who had never felt that way, but they can, sometimes encourage kids to continue reading at a time when that hobby is on the wane. (They can also do the opposite sometimes).
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
reading ?
fiction ?
written on paper ?
Books were useful in the days before the Internet.
My mum trained as a primary teacher. She taught me to read by the time I was 5. My reading age was off the scale by 8. I reckon she thought that was the "be all, and end all" of parenting.
In a sense, you could say that my motivation to read was as a substitute for the parental involvement I lacked.
The only fiction I read in the past 30 years was Douglas Adams / William Gibson.
Fiction is a celebration of the complex human experience I can't relate to and is far too painful. As a kid I gravitated towards trashy stuff - Enid Blyton, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie.
Personally I see reading "great" literature as being overrated as an index of intellectual well-being. Others would place an appreciation of fine art, opera or classical ballet up there too.
My last girlfriend tried to persuade me to watch "Great Expectations" on TV.
fiction ?
written on paper ?
Books were useful in the days before the Internet.
My mum trained as a primary teacher. She taught me to read by the time I was 5. My reading age was off the scale by 8. I reckon she thought that was the "be all, and end all" of parenting.
In a sense, you could say that my motivation to read was as a substitute for the parental involvement I lacked.
The only fiction I read in the past 30 years was Douglas Adams / William Gibson.
Fiction is a celebration of the complex human experience I can't relate to and is far too painful. As a kid I gravitated towards trashy stuff - Enid Blyton, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie.
Personally I see reading "great" literature as being overrated as an index of intellectual well-being. Others would place an appreciation of fine art, opera or classical ballet up there too.
My last girlfriend tried to persuade me to watch "Great Expectations" on TV.
lynne8
Well-Known Member
Don't see reading the classics as being a sign of "intellectual well being", some I just don't get, others I have read because at the start I just though I should and they ended up being a great, enriching experience. Just like with contemporary books, some are good and bad, so are the 'classics'. Sometimes it starts as a snobby, 'Anna Karenina' or 'Atlas Shrugged' kind of thing, but when you apply your own personal taste to the classics just like any other book, it is very rewarding!gentlegreen said:reading ?
fiction ?
written on paper ?
Books were useful in the days before the Internet.
My mum trained as a primary teacher. She taught me to read by the time I was 5. My reading age was off the scale by 8. I reckon she thought that was the "be all, and end all" of parenting.
In a sense, you could say that my motivation to read was as a substitute for the parental involvement I lacked.
The only fiction I read in the past 30 years was Douglas Adams / William Gibson.
Fiction is a celebration of the complex human experience I can't relate to and is far too painful. As a kid I gravitated towards trashy stuff - Enid Blyton, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie.
Personally I see reading "great" literature as being overrated as an index of intellectual well-being. Others would place an appreciation of fine art, opera or classical ballet up there too.
My last girlfriend tried to persuade me to watch "Great Expectations" on TV.
I'm sorry your experience started as one to make up for lack of parental involvment, that's a bit sad. But it doesn't always have to be that way!
scifisam
deleted
gentlegreen said:reading ?
fiction ?
written on paper ?
Books were useful in the days before the Internet.
My mum trained as a primary teacher. She taught me to read by the time I was 5. My reading age was off the scale by 8. I reckon she thought that was the "be all, and end all" of parenting.
In a sense, you could say that my motivation to read was as a substitute for the parental involvement I lacked.
The only fiction I read in the past 30 years was Douglas Adams / William Gibson.
Fiction is a celebration of the complex human experience I can't relate to and is far too painful. As a kid I gravitated towards trashy stuff - Enid Blyton, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie.
Personally I see reading "great" literature as being overrated as an index of intellectual well-being. Others would place an appreciation of fine art, opera or classical ballet up there too.
My last girlfriend tried to persuade me to watch "Great Expectations" on TV.
I thought the OP was asking about reading, as in enjoying reading of any kind, not just highbrow literature.
I loved Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie. They count as reading! Douglas Adams should never be discounted on any scale.
Gentlegreen's upbringing sounds a bit like mine. Because my parents didn't have a telly, I always sought out books that were very entertaining - obviously I loved Dahl, but I also liked Eind Blyton books, which my mum wasn't too happy about, and also stuff like the Three Investigators, the Hardy Boys and those '... adventure' books (jungle adventure etc).
My mum was always trying to make me read historical epic books like Rosemary Sutcliffe, and people like Alan Garner and Ursula LeGuin, and I couldn't get into it at all, then in my teens I discovered the cheesy cod-tolkien type epics like Dragonlance etc...
My mum was always trying to make me read historical epic books like Rosemary Sutcliffe, and people like Alan Garner and Ursula LeGuin, and I couldn't get into it at all, then in my teens I discovered the cheesy cod-tolkien type epics like Dragonlance etc...
I would add that I also don't read nearly enough as an adult. I do read but I just don't have the motivation. It's partly because it's not easy to get books in China, but I have about 8 unread books at home that I just never get round to reading. Then when I find something which is really readable, like Polly Evans's "Fried Eggs With Chopsticks", or "Yes Man", I'll get through it in a few hours. But I'm really battling with His Dark Materials at the moment...
gentlegreen
I hummus, therefore I am ...
I suppose what I was trying to get at was that if I was a child now, assuming my parents had given me the Internet, I would probably have read even fewer books. These days I find reading print on paper intensely frustrating.
I would have made a hopeless parent.
I would have made a hopeless parent.
foo
dirtysweet
sometimes i've suspected my obsessive reading as a child was escapism but i dunno really. it might have been down to living in a house with books all over the place - and no telly until i was 11.
not all of us kids got into reading though, some of them ignored the books.
i do remember that there was no censorship - we were allowed to read what we wanted whether it was adult or children's books. my parents were unusually liberal on that score. i remember struggling (but determined) to read Roald Dahl's adult fiction (Someone Like You i think it was called) at the same time i was reading his kids stuff.
not all of us kids got into reading though, some of them ignored the books.
i do remember that there was no censorship - we were allowed to read what we wanted whether it was adult or children's books. my parents were unusually liberal on that score. i remember struggling (but determined) to read Roald Dahl's adult fiction (Someone Like You i think it was called) at the same time i was reading his kids stuff.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
I got grounded when I was 7 for beating a fellow pupil within an inch of his life for stealing my kit kat (the bastard). Now in my house grounding was proper grounding. In yer room no tv etc. I started reading Secret Seven and that sort of stuff untill I saw Star Wars and realised that science fiction is the greatest thing ever
Cloo
Banana for scale
Absolutely... my bro loved Marvel comics and my parents always felt it was all good. I read his comics, too, and actually I picked up a lot of vocab from them. I recall it was from comics I first understood the word 'sentient', and I'm certain there were other words like that I picked up from them.scifisam said:
I couldn't say really, from quite a young age I always had a book to read or was in the processing of reading. Fell a bit out of that when I was a teenager but when I got to the last year of 6th form/first year of uni I fell back in love with books. I sometimes think it's just a natural affinity for reading more than anything, I can't think of specific things that made me love reading.
May Kasahara
take me to the feeling
RenegadeDog said:
Another Dragonlance survivor eh?
I reread the first three books recently and was shocked at the many ways in which they are lame. But to my primary school self they were The Best Thing Ever.
Ms T
Honey-coloured ramparts
My Dad was very keen that I learnt to read before going to school, and he used to read to me a lot. I particularly remember the Rupert the Bear cartoon from the Daily Express and a big book of Disney stories. Peter Pan was my favourite and I used to pretty much know it off by heart. I read voraciously from an early age - five books a week from the local library.
It's weird though, because my parents didn't read much themselves, and only popular fiction. My Dad rarely picks up a book, and my Mum likes Catherine Cookson and Harry Potter.
It's weird though, because my parents didn't read much themselves, and only popular fiction. My Dad rarely picks up a book, and my Mum likes Catherine Cookson and Harry Potter.
May Kasahara said:Another Dragonlance survivor eh?
I wasn't even as cool as that - I was about 14.
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