What is your earliest memory of developing a love of reading and writing?
I have been moved by words since my early childhood when influenced by A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES by Robert Louis Stevenson.
(Reading a spectacular book makes me envy the writers who came up with such amazing thoughts and words. Reading so many of your blog posts makes me feel the same.)
Sadly I never developed a love of reading or writing as a child, but I am trying to change that now. :)
ReplyDeleteLL Cool Joe -- It is difficult to imagine that you haven't been reading all you life because you write so well. I just read you post for yesterday and it appears we both are on the same wave length. You know it is said, "Reading is fundamental".
ReplyDeleteI don't know how old I would have been, just that I always wanted my mom, dad and older sister (by five years) to read to me. I just sort of learned to read like that, so that I knew how to read when I entered first grade. I just loved it - always.
ReplyDeleteMy parents gave me a set of books called My Book House, 12 volumes. I started with the early volumes and worked my way up to the stories for older kids. I was hooked by the 2nd volume. The drawings/illustrations (which were wonderful)drew me in and the words held me there.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the name of the book and I don't remember being able to read it, but in the first grade there was a book that I always grabbed when we were done with our work. It had beautiful beach scenes in it. Once I did learn how to read,that was it. I remember my Grammy Comstock giving me a book of Aesops fables and a book about a black cat named Cinder. I LOVED those books. And today I read just about anything except romance novels.
ReplyDeleteLynn -- My parents and older siblings read to me also and I read to my kids and they read to their children. It is the best gift to give any child and does inspire them to read themselves. Weren't we lucky!
ReplyDeletekenju -- Sounds like you had some good challenges early on. No wonder you are so knowledgeable and such a good writer too.
Bonnie -- I can remember rewarding myself in school by being allowed to select a book to read. Sometimes I did get called away from the book however when the pictures were so inspirational that I would begin to day dream and create my own mental story. I too loved Aesop's Fables.
Oh, how I used to devour the Nancy Drew series as well as The Happy Hollisters!!
ReplyDeleteI can smile now just thinking about those years where I would sit on the floor against a wall with my knees up to my chest and a book balancing there...great memories.
: )
Grammie -- How could I have forgotten Nancy Drew Mysteries! I loved them too. Don't know the Happy Hollisters but I'm sure I missed something good.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember a time without 1) reading books or 2) trying to write them.
ReplyDeleteDear Annie ~~My mother used to read books to my brother and me and that was the start of a love for books.I had the Aesop's Fables too and won a prize at school of A. A. Milne which I loved. My eyesight holds me up a lot these days and I have to use a magnifying glass to read.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the surprise of the gender of babies when they are born. Progress isn't always the best. The mammogram technician was so unkind and was lucky to survive to get to court. Yay for the judge, Take care my friend, Love Merle.
I can't remember ever not reading - H.P. sauce bottles - anything with the printed word.
ReplyDeleteWriting was later - I enjoyed essays at school but writing unbidden came in my late teens when I got my first large diary from my father. I still have it but unfortunately when I was writing about really private stuff I wrote so small it is now impossible to decipher. Drives me nuts!
I fell in love with books as a very small child. Not so much with the writing.
ReplyDeleteRiot Kitty -- What kind of books do you "try" to write? I'm betting they would be good ones.
ReplyDeleteMerle -- I don't have a Kindle but everyone who does swears by them. Maybe it would help you to read easier if you had one. I enjoyed unabridged audio books so I can hear the book while I do my work.
Pat -- I have kept a journal since I was ten years old. The earlier the diary, the easier it is to read. My handwriting now is barely legible. It is funny that you wrote secret stuff really small. Did you feel like you were whispering?
Dani -- You write very well but when you don't you make up for it by posting perfect and lovely pictures that are each worth a thousand words!
I was always pretty good at reading in school but it wasn't till I read The Hobbit that it really became a love. I couldn't wait to get back into those books.
ReplyDeleteOGO -- Somehow I should have guessed that Bilbo Baggins would be among your favorites:)
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I remember reading Eleanor Estes' book, "The Middle Moffat," over and over again just to relive the moments the middle child, Janey, had in each chapter. It was innocent yet it piqued my interest and love of books. Shortly thereafter I became a member of The Frog and Toad Club, and then things really kicked into gear.
ReplyDeleteileana -- I never heard of THE MIDDLE MOFFAT but you make me want to read it and you also make me want to research The Frog and Toad Club. Perhaps understanding where you came from in literature will help understand why you are such a cool chica:)
ReplyDeleteI can't pinpoint one source, but it happened very early in my life and it has never left me.
ReplyDeleteVia my siblings, I know that not all people will become readers/writers despite being raised in the same home with the same parents. I have striven to instill that love in my children and luckily they have followed in my footsteps.
I may be old fashioned, but I feel sad for people who don't have a love of reading and writing.
I think I always invented stories.
ReplyDeleteMy Fave childhood book was "The Terrible Mr Twitmeyer" about a dog catcher who was secretly bringing all the "gone" dogs to his farm in the country.
That was my first inkling in writing that things aren't always what they appear to be, you can sometimes buck the system, n most importantly- how to take a depressing thing n make it happy.
For me it was the combined volume of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking glass.
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