I recently asked, “How old were you when you discovered your love of reading?” on my Facebook author page. I found the answers fascinating and heartwarming! For this post, I’m hitting on the themes I saw repeated again and again.
First Grade
This was the most common answer! For numerous women, learning to read went hand in hand with loving to read.
“I learned to read in first grade. I couldn’t wait for our bookmobile to come to school.” – Brenda Murphree
“First grade, six years old. I’m almost at 60 years of reading. It has been so many wonderful things to/for me. Truly a blessing from God.” – Judy Faloon
“First Grade – my brother walked with me to the library, helped me sign up for and get my library card, showed me where to look, and helped me carry home my stack of the maximum number of books that could be checked out.” – Ruth Ebert
Never Too Late
Thankfully, there’s still hope for those who don’t tap into the joy of reading early. The take-away: these women simply needed to find the right genre for them.
“In my 30’s. My sister gave me a book of hers and for the first time ever, a few pages in, I was hooked!!” – Lisa Winter
“I used to hate reading. Then around 35 I lived out in the country and a book mobile library came by my house monthly for my 3 homeschool boys and she introduced me to Christian fiction and I have loved it ever since.” – Marilyn Johnson
“25. I used to read while nursing my 3rd child. I needed an escape from the other two who were 2 and 4. 
And my love of Christian romance kind of took off from there!” – Jessica Johnson
“35…I used to HATE reading. Just hadn’t found what I liked. Found Christian fiction romance and can’t stop reading!” – Clarissa Hehman
Mothers
So many of our mothers sowed a love of reading in us. Bravo, moms!
“My precious mother read to us from birth on.” – Lisa Taylor
“Before I could read my mom read to my brother and me before bedtime. One of the highlights of my life in those days.” – Marcia Brown
“Mom read to us every night. I loved to look at the pages with words. They were calling to me. When I started kindergarten, mom had already taught me my ABC’s and many words so I could read some myself. It didn’t take long to be into books myself. Haven’t looked back!” – Lori Smanski
Libraries
No one can overstate the pivotal link between libraries and a love of reading.
“I remember going to the library and getting a huge stack of books. (Think Matilda.)” – Ladette Kerr
“Even before kindergarten I loved being at the local library and picking out books to “read”. I was always part of the library’s Reading Challenge where you earned stickers for books read. Loved it!!!!” – Suzy Clem
“I remember my sister and I going to the library (it was very close by) picking out books in the morning, then taking them back in the afternoon.” – Connie Price
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew was the most-often named series that captured the hearts of readers. [I wonder if this is partly because it was empowering for girls to live in the shoes of a young female character who was both smart and brave.] The Hardy Boys, Boxcar Children, and Judy Blume books were honorable mentions. God bless the authors penning engaging stories for children, both now and then.
“When I discovered the Nancy Drew books, which was at age 11/12…My pocket money was just enough to buy one book a month” -Adele Welgemoed
“When I was 8 years old and my mother bought me my first Nancy Drew book at the beginning of the summer. I couldn’t put it down.” -Anne Wolters
“I remember reading every Nancy Drew novel I could get at my school library.” – Kate Gross
“When I discovered chapter books, like Nancy Drew and The Babysitter’s Club, and I began devouring books.” – Heather Byrd
The dream of reading from a young age
“Before I could even read I would always take a chapter book with me places and run my finger along the words pretending I was reading.” – Abbi Hart
“I literally read in my crib! I had to have books lined up all around my crib in order to sleep!” – Holly Signorino
“I wanted to read well before I started school. I was just told that I would be able to read once I went to school. My mom told me I came home angry my first day because I couldn’t read. I guess I thought something magic happened when I walked through those doors.” – Pam Morrison
Do you relate to the above?
Before I go, I’m delighted to announce that my new release, Memory Lane, is now widely available as an audiobook! I hand-picked the narrators and oversaw the production of this project and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. If you’re an audiobook person, I hope you’ll give it a listen!
Audible | My Website | Scribd | Audiobooks.com | and more!
Becky Wade
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What a fun post, Becky! I’ve loved to read for as long as I can remember. My mom always said that I was sounding out words on cereal boxes before I went to first grade (we went to country school, so I skipped kindergarten). And yes, my mom was super instrumental in my love of reading. I had asthma as a kid so wasn’t able to participate in a lot of the activities my siblings did (doctors’ orders have changed a lot since then, thank goodness!) So while I was stuck inside, my mom read to me and took me to the library, where my great-aunt was the head librarian. I knew from the summer I was 11 and read the Little House books that I someday wanted to grow up and write a novel.
I love that! it’s wonderful to hear what a positive impact reading had on so many of us as children.
Great post! My answers don’t match any of those. I fell in love with reading in 5th grade when my sweet teacher Mrs. Hadley offered an A for reading a certain number of pages. I had NEVER seen an A before on my report card, :P, and it motivated me to read, if nothing else, for that A. I started reading Ralph the Mouse and Ramona Quimby, and the rest is history. From an almost failing reader to an avid reader in one year. Mrs. Hadley was and is my favorite teacher for giving me the world of reading.
“Mrs. Hadley was and is my favorite teacher for giving me the world of reading.” I completely understand why! The world of reading is a HUGE lifelong gift to give someone. I’m thankful that she understood how to motivate you. Positive reinforcement (in this case an A) goes a long way!
LOVED LOVED reading all these fun responses!!!!
Including yours!
I feel like I fall into several of those categories. As I tell others (and say on my website), I fell in love with books before I could read. Every member of my family was always reading something, so I went to first grade to learn to read. My mom read to us out of a huge book of stories for children. It is an old, old book now and the pages and cover are crumbling, but I keep it for sentimental reasons. I never cared for Nancy Drew. My girl was Trixie Belden. I owned the entire series at one time, but they got lost in a move when I was an adult. And yes, I loved libraries. I would always come home with books stacked up to my chin. As an aside, my church has a book club that meets, and the club is called BookSniffers. Because isn’t there something about the smell of books? (I say this even though my main reading is audiobooks and then Kindle books.)
“My mom read to us out of a huge book of stories for children.” Yes! We had one of these for stories for children and also Bible stories for children!
A fun post. I am one of them above. I love that so many people read. We can travel anywhere and to anytime staying home. But it also exercises our minds.
Precisely!!
I was 10 when we moved. There was a county library just a few blocks out of the way walking home from school. I read the Black Stallion series and Zane Grey. My parents didn’t approve of Zane Grey and insisted I take it back but I had to finish it 1st so I took the shade off my lamp and propped my church coat over it so I could read after I went to bed. The hot bulb burned a hole in my coat and I was busted. I’ve been a fan of reading ever since. I’m a library volunteer at my church. We have Book Chat once a month. Tomorrow I’m leading the discussion on you book ‘Falling for You’.