Marquise > Status Update

I cannot. I know my parents read to me since I was a baby. I remember always loving books. 📚 🩵.

I recall starting to love reading when I was in the fourth grade, thanks to my Social and English textbooks.

There are some books from my childhood I still remember. But no, I think books spoke to me much earlier than my memories allow me to revisit. What is the first book you remember falling in love with?

Marta wrote: "I cannot. I know my parents read to me since I was a baby. I remember always loving books. 📚 🩵."

I suspect most if not all of us who have always been readers learnt it from imitating our parents/elder siblings. Mine never read to me (and that despite my dad being a bookaholic), but I guess they decided they didn't need to anyway since I insisted to do it myself.

My mum did tell me stories and tales verbally. <3

Mmmm... now that I think about it, my dad loved to read aloud to my mum in the evenings, so I likely "heard" his voice whilst in the womb. That would explain my early verbosity. :D

Venky wrote: "I recall starting to love reading when I was in the fourth grade, thanks to my Social and English textbooks."

What kind of English literature do kids in your country read?

Thibault wrote: "What is the first book you remember falling in love with?"

The Farmer's Almanac. 🤣

We were landowners, ya see. Gentleman Farmer hobbitses but slightly wilder.

Ooh these questions are cool!! That's awesome that you taught yourself to read! For me, I had a special teacher who taught me Braille and I LOVED learning to read! I had these little hard-copy Braille books like Go Dog Go that I read like every day LOL!

My mom always read aloud to me and my sister so I grew up loving stories, but I didn’t start seriously reading until I was somewhere between 12 and 14. I preferred to make believe my own stories rather then read someone else’s, lol.

Not really! But my mom used to read to me when I was little (Science oriented books for kids mostly). I do remember being 13 when I read my first “classic” Dracula. Which probably started my love for horror.

I have a vague memory of grandma reading to me as a toddler.

Alot of my memories are gone but mom said I always had a book in my hand ❤️

One of my earliest memories is cuddling up with my dad while he read me The Hobbit. But I think my first memory of actually reading for me is being in kindergarten and being annoyed to move on from the reading station and getting a talking to for it. Teachers fussing over me reading in class when I got top marks and never caused trouble will never not be funny frustrating lol

No. My earliest memory is from when I was 4. I could already read simple words and text before the age of 4. Plus my Mom says that I insisted on her reading me books all the time and would flip through them just to ‘look’ as a kid. So I think I was a ‘reader’ from the womb. lol!!!

My father once told me he was reading out loud to me one evening when I was probably 4 or 5 years old, and he briefly nodded off (he had long commutes & work days back then), but he awoke moments later to find that I was now reading the words aloud without missing a beat in the story by childhood author/artist Richard Scarry. I'd say this was the 'ground zero' moment for me. ☺️

Growing up my mother used to take my sisters and I to the library and that’s what caused me to enjoy reading so much. I’ve enjoyed reading since I learnt to read. I stopped reading for a while because I couldn’t afford books so when I started having my own money I started reading again in 2022 and I also now have a library card that I use quite a lot as I love to support my local library ❤️

I came out of the womb with a book in one hand and a flashlight in the other. I never remember a moment when I wasn’t reading. My mom was a teacher, so when I entered kindergarten, I was excited to get new books to read. I thought I was being tricked when they broke out the three letter words. “C….A….T… cat!” I was seriously confused. Where were my sentences? Where were my paragraphs? Where were my new books?!? I’ve never gotten over it and now buy books like they are going out of style. 😅

My mom is a big reader, so there were always tons of books around me growing up. I knew how to read when I was 4, my folks say I taught myself even if I can't remember that at all. I don't think I've been anywhere without a book since.

I got into reading through Enid blyton as a child. I highly enjoyed that! Famous five, Secret Seven! But that wasn’t what made me a “reader” for life.

We had library periods in school. So for that time each week we had to sit quietly and read in the school library. One time in grade 6 I randomly picked up a book and borrowed it. I bought it home, not having given it much thought. My mom saw it and said how she loved these short stories (O. Henry) growing up, and then gave me the summary of those stories and encouraged me to read. I got hooked. It made the English literature one of my favourite subjects henceforth. I loved reading those short stories and poems and discussing them with my mom. We had so much fun with English literature in school. That made me love this power to enchant people with words.

I remember carrying books before I could read them. I went in my first library at 5 years old and it felt like coming home.

As a child I lacked the attention span to focus. As an adult, until age 45, I read a few books a year. In Jan 2020, I decided to seriously commit myself after I saw how much Obama read. Well, it was great timing with Covid (as I was off work for 4 months lol). I set a lofty goal last year and made it. I even shock myself sometimes!

Jen wrote: "I came out of the womb with a book in one hand and a flashlight in the other. I never remember a moment when I wasn’t reading. My mom was a teacher, so when I entered kindergarten, I was excited to..."

Uh! The number of folks here born with Congenital Bookwormitis is surprising! 🤣🤣🤣

Or maybe not. We are a minority taken as a whole. But it's heartwarming to see so many in this thread are self-taught little readers who never grew out of it.

I do know some who did get cured of Congenital Bookwormitis, though, and no longer are readers. That's sad, this should be one birth defect that never gets cured...

Mia wrote: "For me, I had a special teacher who taught me Braille and I LOVED learning to read!"

You're blind? Whoa, I hadn't even noticed even though I should be able to (I have a blind relative I get books for). I mean this as a compliment, some blind people I've met in person were so smart about moving about that it took me a while to notice they couldn't see.

That's great! Now with audiobooks and screen-reading software, you must have a tonne more books, right?

Sarah wrote: "My mom always read aloud to me and my sister so I grew up loving stories, but I didn’t start seriously reading until I was somewhere between 12 and 14. I preferred to make believe my own stories ra..."

So you were a Congenital Storyteller?! I'm jelly. 😅

But seriously, some authors I've read weave tales in such ways I can tell they're your type too. Different to being a writer (in the writing/prose sense), because some Storytellers never write. My mum was that type, talented for making up and telling fairy tales, but never read to me or wrote anything.

Meishuu wrote: "Not really! But my mom used to read to me when I was little (Science oriented books for kids mostly)..."

Smart lady, your mummy! I can see you got both your love for reading and your scientific inclinations from her, yes?

TL *Humaning the Best She Can* wrote: "I have a vague memory of grandma reading to me as a toddler.

Alot of my memories are gone but mom said I always had a book in my hand ❤️"

Some neurodivergent kids learn to read very early on their own too. Maybe you did this way too? ❤️

Maria wrote: "One of my earliest memories is cuddling up with my dad while he read me The Hobbit."

Aw, wish I had such a sweet memory. ❤️

Mel (Epic Reading) wrote: "No. My earliest memory is from when I was 4. I could already read simple words and text before the age of 4. Plus my Mom says that I insisted on her reading me books all the time and would flip thr..."

Congenital Bookworms of the world, unite! 😅 Feels so nice to see this has been the case for so many of us here.

Scott wrote: "My father once told me he was reading out loud to me one evening when I was probably 4 or 5 years old, and he briefly nodded off (he had long commutes & work days back then), but he awoke moments l..."

No way you were going to miss the ending or wait until your dad woke up, eh? 😅

Erica🤍 wrote: "Growing up my mother used to take my sisters and I to the library and that’s what caused me to enjoy reading so much. I’ve enjoyed reading since I learnt to read. I stopped reading for a while beca..."

During that period you couldn't buy books, could you access a library or was that also not an option?

Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) wrote: "My mom is a big reader, so there were always tons of books around me growing up. I knew how to read when I was 4, my folks say I taught myself even if I can't remember that at all..."

Another for the Congenital Bookworms club. 😅

Kushagri wrote: ". We had so much fun with English literature in school. That made me love this power to enchant people with words."

Beautiful story, Kushagri! I like that you have such a warm memory of how you started.

Out of curiosity, what about your won local literature in India? I ask because the GRers from there I know here are heavily into English lit/Western lit but I almost never see them reading or talking about Indian lit. Maybe it's self-selection as GR is an Anglophone place.

Krystal wrote: "I remember carrying books before I could read them. I went in my first library at 5 years old and it felt like coming home."

What were you carrying books for if you couldn't read them yet? To play or look at pics in them?

Karen wrote: "As a child I lacked the attention span to focus. As an adult, until age 45, I read a few books a year. In Jan 2020, I decided to seriously commit myself after I saw how much Obama read."

You're the first person I ever hear credit a politician for their love of reading. o.O

I remember loving listening to stories and, when I was four and five, I would beg my parents to take me to the library or bookstore and read to me. I began learning Braille at the age of six, and the first book I was allowed to take home was a Sally, Dick and Jane book, (not sure if people will recognize those names). I can't remember much about the book, but I do know that after that experience, I was never without a Braille book.

I remember in 1st grade HATING to read. In school we had boring books that where the main plot was the duck got wet. Guess who didn't care about a duck getting wet? This girl!! But my parents read to me all the time, once my dad sat me down and told me that once I started to read on my own I wouldn't have to wait for either him or my mom to read to me, that's when I got serious. By 2nd grade I was reading chapter books. By 4th grade adult (age appropriate) genre fiction.

Meredith wrote: "I began learning Braille at the age of six,..."

I imagine you were taught Braille at school? That's about the age sighted and non-sighted children start school.

I can't remember exactly when I started reading outside of school assignments. Our house was full of books and my mother and grandmother read to me when I was very small. My earliest actual memory of independent reading was an old grade school anthology from my grandparents' house that I read under the covers with a flashlight when I was supposed to be asleep. An anthology from the old days with stories from the Odyssey, Greek and Norse mythology, folktales, Parson Weems stories of GW, a lot of Longfellow, etc. Not the pablum they dish out in schools these days, if they read anything at all. I think I may have been 7 or 8 at the time.

Yes. I began learning in the first grade at the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville. I repeated the first grade as Braille takes time to fully learn.

I don't remember the timeframe I learned to read, but I know it was early. I was at a 9th grade lexile in kindergarten, reading books in fun little voices to my baby siblings only barely after I mastered the art of pronouncing "yellow," and teaching myself cursive so I could read stylized excerpts from a children's series I enjoyed before I was eight

I don't have quite that level of determination anymore, but I do still have my copy of Love You Forever that I could hear my grandma's voice singing to me when I unpacked it after this recent move. Whatever I learned to read on, that book was one of my first 🥹

Nope! I know I knew how to read before I was in kindergarten, and that my mother was the main person who taught us how, but I have no recollection of a specific moment where a transition might have happened.

It was way back when I was a child like 9-10 years old with some native authos.

I can't imagine being able to remember such a thing. I have only the vaguest impressions of childhood and can't really place them in time.

I don't remember how it all began, I just remember that whenever we used to go on roadtrips as a family, I was the kid who would pack 2/3 books to read on the way. I enjoyed reading from a young age and would always read a book before I went to bed every night.

I could also access the library at the time but I was new to the area as we just moved home and I didn’t know where my local library was and when I found out I’ve been using it nonstop ❤️

I cannot remember not being a reader 😎 I was always checking out books from my school library even in 1st grade...

I was 8. I had flown through the first grade reading groups but I didn't like the books we read so I thought I hated reading. My mom brought home a Nancy Drew book from the library and said we'd read it together and from that point I was hooked and started devouring books as fast as I could get my hands on them.

When I first learned to read as a child.

What a great question. I don’t think I can remember either! It’s always been a part of me. My dad remembers me reading out loud to other children 🙂

Michelle wrote: "I remember in 1st grade HATING to read. In school we had boring books that where the main plot was the duck got wet. Guess who didn't care about a duck getting wet? This girl!!"

Hahaha! I can relate. I never read a single children's book when I was that age, being the runt of the litter and having a dad that didn't believe in reading to his brood but encouraging them to read by themselves saved me from many childhood bookish traumas. Not reading shitty kiddie literature is the one saving grace of not having age-appropriate books growing up.

On the other hand, who needs to read about adult self-inflicted injuries at age 5? 😅

Fred wrote: "My earliest actual memory of independent reading was an old grade school anthology from my grandparents' house that I read under the covers with a flashlight when I was supposed to be asleep."

No wonder you're such a lover of Classic Antiquity! You started early.

Funny anecdote: My dad used to turn the power switch down for lights to go off and pretend a town-wide power blackout happened whenever he caught me reading past my bedtime. I believed him 100% and it never occurred to me that I could read under the covers with a flashlight. 😅

Meredith wrote: "Yes. I began learning in the first grade at the Tennessee School for the Blind in Nashville. I repeated the first grade as Braille takes time to fully learn."

Oh, I believe you! All the blind people I know who write & read Braille did it as teens or adults, I thought it was because they lost sight later in life (none amongst those I know was born without sight), but now I'm wondering if it's also that it took them long to learn.