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

[SheilaT]

32. I just read back through this thread and remembered

something else that I think was crucial in my love of reading. Comic books. They were cheap enough to be affordable, and we had a huge collection of all the Walt Disney ones -- Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck, and other Disney characters had their own dedicated comic books that came out every month. The Archie and Betty ones. Superman, Supergirl, Batman. We'd get my mother to read the Disney ones aloud because she'd do different voices, and that was fun.

I think the comic books made a very nice transition from the picture books for very young children, and the chapter books for better readers. Back then, the 1950's, there just weren't that many books for specific age categories. I do recall becoming a little embarrassed at my love of the comics by the time I was twelve or so, but still read them, just didn't let my friends know. But at home, they were always there and we all read them.

We also had a lot of the Classic Illustrated Comics, so I read that version of Hamlet, and others I can no longer recall.

Interestingly, I have not gotten into the graphic novels that are now out there. I've gotten so I vastly prefer the image in my head, to someone else's image, but I understand why they are so popular and praised.