It might come as a surprise to some of you that I didn’t grow up an avid reader. I know, I’m all kinds of ashamed because I missed out on a lot of great YA books. Sure, I think I’ve made up for my lack of reading as a kid with all of the reading that I do now. I’ve read hundreds of books since high school and that warms my book loving heart.
I don’t even know why I didn’t read more. I was surrounded by a whole lot of readers. 4 of them lived with me and they’re actually the ones that inspired me to pick up my very first book back in 1999.
My sisters Blanche, Helen, Delene and Ingrid inspired my love of reading. They used to read all the time. They read Harlequin category romances, paperback romances but their preferred genre was historical romances (still is, come to think of it) so after high school when I was bored and in need of something to fill my time, I picked up Something Wonderful by Judith McNaught. As they say, the rest is history but listening to my sisters discuss the books after they read them inspired me to check them out. I wanted to know what the big deal was and meeting Jordan Townsende for the first time really clicked with me. After that book, I got it. I got what the big deal was and I have never stopped reading since.
What about you? Who inspired your love of reading?
My family is full of readers (my grandparents especially), but I don’t remember any of them actually sparking my desire to read. Aside from my grandfather I don’t actually remember seeing any of them read books, I just knew they did.
Are You My Mother was the first book I loved. I carried that book around with me for months once I learned to read on my own, along with Green Eggs and Ham. Being carried away to another world and following characters as they went on adventures was so wonderful for me. I read everything I could get my hands on from the time I could read chapter books until now.
The Mandie Collection, Sweet Valley High, Little House on the Prairie and any other number of popular series. Oh, how I adored Pippy Longstocking and Anne of Green Gables. Then I graduated to horror and suspense. And the classics.
I read a handful of Sweet Valley High books in middle school but not all of them. Your childhood must have been awesome, to be caught up in so many reading adventures. Your imagination as a child must have been something too. Ha!
No one in my family is a reader. I don’t think I’ve ever seen either of my parents read a book in my entire life. But my middle school had required reading time every day (any book, you just had to read), and I managed to find some great books and that’s when I realized reading was awesome and became a reader 🙂
When I was in high school, we had 10 minutes of sustained silent reading and it took me an entire year to finish Daddy by Danielle Steel. I liked it but not nearly as much as I love the books I’ve read since then.
Neither of my parents are huge readers (my dad reads more than most now that’s he’s retired but nowhere near my level), but they were big on reading to me from even before birth (my dad would read books to me while my mom was pregnant). They’re big believers in literacy and education.
My parents were definitely the ones who inspired & encouraged my love of reading and showed me by their example how important reading was in life. It wasn’t just fiction that we (I have 2 sisters) were encouraged to read but just about every genre…including newspapers. I started on Nancy Drew books and never looked back.
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t read, and I guess that was my mom’s influence. She was a prodigious reader, just as I am. I learned to read when I was 3 or 4 and from then on, I was never without a book. I started reading my mom’s books when I was 10 or 11 (to this day I remember picking up and reading her copy of Valley of the Dolls LOL). I was pretty unclear on a lot of what the book was about but I loved it anyway.
*rushing to Goodreads to look up Valley of the Dolls* 🙂
Ha, at the time (early ’70’s), it was pretty scandalous – think Playboy Mansion, sex, drugs, and money, with lots of cheesy dialog. The funny thing is that compared to current day books, it’s actually pretty tame. If I recall correctly, the sex scenes were not at all explicit but it still wasn’t something you wanted your pre-teen daughter to read. I don’t think my mom ever realized that I had looked at any of her books, let alone read them. She thought I was still reading The Black Stallion….
Ahhh, oh wow. That doesn’t sound like something I’d be interested in then. But yeah, i can totally see not wanting your preteen daughter to read.
My parents were both readers; however, they were often too busy to read much. I’ll give credit to my grandmother with whom my sister and I stayed each summer for six weeks. She routinely read to us and gifted us with books.
Aww, your grandmother sounds great!
My early love of reading probably came most from my dad. I do NOT read anything like what he reads. He’s into ancient Greek literature and I would rather stick a fork in my eye than read any more of that stuff than I had to read in school, ha. But, he read constantly and read to me constantly, and as a result I was the kid who had a book with her everywhere. My mom also read constantly but she read read romance, mostly Harlequins. I never remember having an actual conversation about her reading, though. It didn’t really even dawn on me until I was in middle school that she was reading romance, at which time she started taking me to an awesome used romance book store she frequented. That’s when I started getting into Harlequin’s very clean regencies, and eventually in early high school to Intrigues. Again though, we never talked about the books we read or shared any reading (our family has some awkward dynamics, sigh). We still don’t read in the same sub genre. She’s now into contemporaries like Debbie Maycomber, while I generally read much sexier stuff.
That’s awesome, Jen! Your parents were great to introduce you to reading and I can tell that your Moms love of Harlequins has definitely stayed with you.