The Rebellious Readers discussion

I'm curious, when did you guys get into reading? How did you become a reader?

I got into reading at the end of 3rd grade - beginning 4th grade when I started reading some of Roal Dahl's books and Harry Potter on my father recommendation. I really loved all that I read back then, but at the time I felt really burned out by reading all those books so I took a break for a year or so (oops) and I started reading again at the end of 5th grade when I got into Percy Jackson, The Shadowhunters Books and Ya Dystopians. And I've been in love with reading ever since :))

I got into reading in first grade when I started reading the Rainbow Magic series, which is where my love of fantasy books began. Throughout primary school I was obsessed with Enid Blyton books, the How To Train Your Dragon series, Flitterwig, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and a lot of other middle grade fantasy series. Now, I just read a lot of YA but I’m trying to branch out a bit more.

I got into reading also in my first grade! We were required to read short stories in our english class and I excelled in all of them which I really enjoyed. But the thing was, I don't read at home not until my 3rd to 4th grade that I actually really got addicted into reading. I first read a fanfic about Adventure Time lol and started reading stories on wattpad until I discovered that there are much more enjoyable stories in the library and in the bookstores. The Shadowhunters Series had a special place in my heart since it opened my eyes and made me realize that there is much more stories here in this world and more characters to love!

I've always had a connection with words and books. My father had his own library which I started reading in grade 3. Even though they were all history and not that interesting, I kept reading them. My parents recognized my love of books and started buying children's books. In 4th grade I fell in love with Roald Dahl's books! Since then, I am always currently reading! ✯

I can't remember a time of not reading, to be honest. Like...literally can't remember. Since I have an older sister, when she practiced reading and writing at home, I learned to read from her. I read small books even before I went to school at all. And our parents read to us regularly...maybe even every night? And I had a collection of short audiobooks I listened to before bed, which is funny, cause now I'm not into audiobooks at all anymore.

My first books that I liked must be pretty different from everyone else anyway since most of them were written in German. As a true Austrian, I naturally spent my days in primary school reading the metric ton of books Thomas Brezina has written when I wasn't watching him on TV. He's something of a childhood icon here, he's been part of a lot of people's childhood and now he posts positive and uplifting content on social media. It's a bit odd, because while he's very wholesome, he's also a huge part of Austrian meme culture. And he also wrote a sequel series for adults that read the original series in the 90s and early 2000s where all the kid protagonists from the original series are all grown up. He's like the friendly advice uncle of my generation at this point.

Some more "classic" childhood authors I read in my early years (or had read to me) were Erich Kästner and Michael Ende. Both their works are amazing, and I strongly recommend you dip a little into Erich Kästner's history if you are interested in his books - they were publicly burned under the Nazi regime, that he always openly opposed. Stories from these two authors are much more philosophical and I love to return to them even today. I think some children's stories hit harder when you're an adult.

And after that...well, to be honest, I had a really intense phase of really really being into the Warrior Cats series (lol) and then I discovered the internet and kinda didn't read a whole lot for a while. I was in high school when I got into Percy Jackson, where I wisely prophecied that I was probably gonna lose interest in it, and look at me now, lmao. In recent years, while I did a lot of writing, I haven't read a whole lot sadly due to me gaining strong interest in other media like anime and video games (which I still love), but thanks to finding some cool communities (including this one!) I've gotten back into it more. I still love it, I really just needed that nudge. (and I think it helped with my writing too!)

So, there you go, that got a little extensive, but hopefully that's a nice little story for y'all~

My parents would read me picture books when I was a kid and I would memorize what they'd say then when they'd go to sleep, I'd stay up late reciting what they'd read to me. I didn't really start reading books by myself until kindergarten when I read Junie B. Jones, but after that, I was hooked on reading and I couldn't stop.

I read City of Bones, the whole series and then I wanted to get into the world of reading, so I went from there! ")