I want to start a somewhat different sort of conversation here: What made you into a book reader?

[llmart]

28. My story is somewhat similar...

in that I grew up in a large family (6 siblings) and was one of the youngest. I was envious of what they would talk about when they came home from school and couldn't wait to go to school. We didn't have kindergarten in our small, rural town in the 1950's so I didn't start school until first grade. I could already read fluently by then. I clearly remember sitting on little red chairs in a circle as the teacher went around the circle making each one of us read (I was put in the advanced reading group). I was so impatient with the kids who couldn't read well and wanted to get up and slap them. I thought the advanced group would be better than that!

On Fridays the sixth graders would walk us down to our little public library and the first few times I went I would only take out one book at a time and I'd be done with it way before the next Friday. One day someone told me I could take out more than one - three, in fact - and that was better than candy to me.

The Sally, Dick and Jane books bored me to tears. I remember finding some more advanced books on my oldest sister's closet shelf and took them down and sat on the floor in my closet and read. It was the only refuge for me in a very small house with 9 people and all the chaos. I had a dysfunctional family with a father whose behavior was unpredictable from day to day, so reading was my escape. Another sister and I discovered the Nancy Drew books later on and we read every single one of them.

In junior high I discovered "Gone With the Wind" and didn't want to put it down to do anything else. My mother kept telling me that I was going to ruin my eyes with all my reading and maybe she was right because I have terrible eyesight.

My mother was an avid reader though I don't know when she found the time. She took me to the library with her when I was older and never, ever did she tell me I couldn't take out books from the adult section.

In my more recent past I ended up working in libraries for ten years.