I love this article! I grew up in a family of readers so it was part of our culture, which I’ve carried on in my own home now as a mom of three. I think that if someone doesn’t like to read they simply haven’t found the right book!
I think reading may start for a lot of folks like me, my mom taking me to the library every week. Then I found books I loved and grew my love of reading. But maybe not everyone starts or sticks to reading that way.
Recently, I started picking books for a friend and she fell back in love with reading. She just needed help figuring out what she liked. If more people found their way to a library or helpful bookstore, they may fall back in love with reading, too.
Thank you for this post, Melissa; I always find yours to be interesting, and written with a gentle hand that is very unique to you.
I have read the comments that came before mine, and recognize pieces of myself in some of them. Trips to the local library with my mother to get Dr. Suess books that we would read together in her lap (always washing our hands first, so as not to defile an object that was, in a way, sacred), later going to a different library (when we moved in with my grandmother) and me picking out books to sign out, usually science fiction), often spending the rest of Saturday curled up with the one I thought I most wanted to read.
Around about Grade 6, I started to read the literary renditions of the Star Trek scripts (Original - there were still only two series then). The second series to me was the animated Saturday morning series, and Alan Dean Foster turned those scripts into exceptionally entertaining stories, some novel-length. I specifically remember my mother and I, around that time, reading a book together again, and even sharing it with my grandmother, who had a roast in the oven. The Omen!
AS I've said before, I was bullied in school, until my mother placed me into the best martial arts school Winnipeg had. But I had long spent my lunch periods in the library, where I read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
And even at home, I had stayed up unadvisedly late, reading, again, science fiction.
Backtracking a bit, I asked for, and got, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings for my thirteenth birthday, and became immersed in all things Tolkien. This might have been my pivot to fantasy, because D&D came very shortly after.
But Mom definitely made me a reader, and grandma (herself literate, but in Russian and Ukrainian), and never discouraged my reading - obviously - of 'non-literary' books. I tink she thought that those were what school was for. She herself read popular paperbacks by Taylor Caldwell, and some guy named 'Dr.' Frank G. Slaughter, which had to be a pen name, and i think were medical dramas that involved steamy romance.
So I was both introduced to reading at an early age, and later found it an escape from a not so happy young adulthood. Every spring during grade school, I had my own tradition of re-reading Howard Pyle's Robin Hood.
Some books I had to struggle a bit with, but others I could not put down. But I made it through them all, almost, even though I can't place the m quite to exact ages now. I remember finding copies of the digests Galaxy, and Worlds of IF, and hiding books by Harlan Ellison, because I thought I'd get in trouble for reading stories with so much vulgarity in them. (I was probably wrong.) I remember the midshipmen's last stand in The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven, when we finally realize that the aliens are not our friends (sound familiar?). I remember reading the real Conan stories for the first time when we were playing D&D, and the first historical fiction I read, in the same collections.
My mom made me a reader, but she allowed me to shape the direction that would take, not judging what I should read by some defined literary standard. I liked reading most of the books assigned in school. I actually, if I recall correctly, enjoyed 'Great Expectations", so there's one classic. I also got hooked in grade 7 into a book called 'A Letter to Caesar' (historical fiction), and in grade 8, I pure and simple could not put down 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. But 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles" was my Waterloo, I could not get through it, no way, nohow.
So I think, someone has to put you in the boat, and gently teach you how to sail, but then let you take the rudder, and steer your own course.
So by the time I got to university, I was firmly established as a reader, but found little time between school and kung fu to to read for pleasure. Perhaps that is one reason I chose to major in history, so that the subject matter would compensate. And I also played chess for a few years, and read books on that, but the best part of it may have been playing in tournaments was sneaking upstairs from the library's basement between rounds to read the short horror stories in the Karl Edward Wagner collections Whispers and Shadows, where I discovered Dennis Etchison and David Drake, whose main works I would much later follow. And Manley Wade Wellman's Silver John stories.
I have gone on too long. This is why I need my own Substack. Or this could even be expande and reworked into an essay for a literary journal. There is so much more I am bursting to say.
One interesting aside, in response to your statistic about Americans. I don't know about Canadians, but I just read in an article today that the most literate, and with the highest proportion of actual readers, nation on Earth is Russia.
The first books I remember loving were Richard Scarry’s children’s books. Then,
Once I was reading independent by 1st grade, I fell in love with the Little House seris and The Betsy-Tacy series. I see pattern of escaping to another place and time in my early reading choices.
My mother started me reading even before I went to school. When I was 8 or 9 I found Jane Eyre. That’s when it “clicked “ for me and I’ve been an avid reader since then. Sometimes I have 4-5 books on the go at once. And I have my favourites which I read over and over.
With my brother, he didn’t read much until he started a job which involved a lot of travel and he picked up a book to pass the time. Now he reads nearly as much as I do.
I honestly don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have my wonderful books!
I shudder to image a world without books. I love that you remember your book that “clicked”. For me it was a chunky little abridged version of Little Women.
I think that sometimes non-readers make assumptions about reading which then make them feel that this is something they cannot do. 1) All readers enjoy classic or literary novels. No other book counts. I do not enjoy "hard" books so I am not a reader (Shame around reading choices) 2) Only books count. Graphic novels, audiobooks, magazines, reading a daily newspaper. This is not reading so I am not a reader (Snobbery about reading choices) 3) Real readers never give up on a book so I am must struggle through even though that means I will not want to pick up my book (Fear of failure perhaps) All of this type of thinking becomes a barrier. Perhaps people who keep reading learn to ignore or overcome these barriers. I rarely read literary novels, I read every type of book including picture books and I quickly give up on a story that bores me
I love this article! I grew up in a family of readers so it was part of our culture, which I’ve carried on in my own home now as a mom of three. I think that if someone doesn’t like to read they simply haven’t found the right book!
I completely agree! Or perhaps audiobooks, graphic novels, non fiction... the options are endless!
I love how you define readers. I totally agree.
I think reading may start for a lot of folks like me, my mom taking me to the library every week. Then I found books I loved and grew my love of reading. But maybe not everyone starts or sticks to reading that way.
Recently, I started picking books for a friend and she fell back in love with reading. She just needed help figuring out what she liked. If more people found their way to a library or helpful bookstore, they may fall back in love with reading, too.
I love that you helped your friend find her way back to reading! I also have many memories of the library with my mom.
Thank you for this post, Melissa; I always find yours to be interesting, and written with a gentle hand that is very unique to you.
I have read the comments that came before mine, and recognize pieces of myself in some of them. Trips to the local library with my mother to get Dr. Suess books that we would read together in her lap (always washing our hands first, so as not to defile an object that was, in a way, sacred), later going to a different library (when we moved in with my grandmother) and me picking out books to sign out, usually science fiction), often spending the rest of Saturday curled up with the one I thought I most wanted to read.
Around about Grade 6, I started to read the literary renditions of the Star Trek scripts (Original - there were still only two series then). The second series to me was the animated Saturday morning series, and Alan Dean Foster turned those scripts into exceptionally entertaining stories, some novel-length. I specifically remember my mother and I, around that time, reading a book together again, and even sharing it with my grandmother, who had a roast in the oven. The Omen!
AS I've said before, I was bullied in school, until my mother placed me into the best martial arts school Winnipeg had. But I had long spent my lunch periods in the library, where I read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
And even at home, I had stayed up unadvisedly late, reading, again, science fiction.
Backtracking a bit, I asked for, and got, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings for my thirteenth birthday, and became immersed in all things Tolkien. This might have been my pivot to fantasy, because D&D came very shortly after.
But Mom definitely made me a reader, and grandma (herself literate, but in Russian and Ukrainian), and never discouraged my reading - obviously - of 'non-literary' books. I tink she thought that those were what school was for. She herself read popular paperbacks by Taylor Caldwell, and some guy named 'Dr.' Frank G. Slaughter, which had to be a pen name, and i think were medical dramas that involved steamy romance.
So I was both introduced to reading at an early age, and later found it an escape from a not so happy young adulthood. Every spring during grade school, I had my own tradition of re-reading Howard Pyle's Robin Hood.
Some books I had to struggle a bit with, but others I could not put down. But I made it through them all, almost, even though I can't place the m quite to exact ages now. I remember finding copies of the digests Galaxy, and Worlds of IF, and hiding books by Harlan Ellison, because I thought I'd get in trouble for reading stories with so much vulgarity in them. (I was probably wrong.) I remember the midshipmen's last stand in The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven, when we finally realize that the aliens are not our friends (sound familiar?). I remember reading the real Conan stories for the first time when we were playing D&D, and the first historical fiction I read, in the same collections.
My mom made me a reader, but she allowed me to shape the direction that would take, not judging what I should read by some defined literary standard. I liked reading most of the books assigned in school. I actually, if I recall correctly, enjoyed 'Great Expectations", so there's one classic. I also got hooked in grade 7 into a book called 'A Letter to Caesar' (historical fiction), and in grade 8, I pure and simple could not put down 'Mutiny on the Bounty'. But 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles" was my Waterloo, I could not get through it, no way, nohow.
So I think, someone has to put you in the boat, and gently teach you how to sail, but then let you take the rudder, and steer your own course.
So by the time I got to university, I was firmly established as a reader, but found little time between school and kung fu to to read for pleasure. Perhaps that is one reason I chose to major in history, so that the subject matter would compensate. And I also played chess for a few years, and read books on that, but the best part of it may have been playing in tournaments was sneaking upstairs from the library's basement between rounds to read the short horror stories in the Karl Edward Wagner collections Whispers and Shadows, where I discovered Dennis Etchison and David Drake, whose main works I would much later follow. And Manley Wade Wellman's Silver John stories.
I have gone on too long. This is why I need my own Substack. Or this could even be expande and reworked into an essay for a literary journal. There is so much more I am bursting to say.
One interesting aside, in response to your statistic about Americans. I don't know about Canadians, but I just read in an article today that the most literate, and with the highest proportion of actual readers, nation on Earth is Russia.
The first books I remember loving were Richard Scarry’s children’s books. Then,
Once I was reading independent by 1st grade, I fell in love with the Little House seris and The Betsy-Tacy series. I see pattern of escaping to another place and time in my early reading choices.
So many great classics!
My mother started me reading even before I went to school. When I was 8 or 9 I found Jane Eyre. That’s when it “clicked “ for me and I’ve been an avid reader since then. Sometimes I have 4-5 books on the go at once. And I have my favourites which I read over and over.
With my brother, he didn’t read much until he started a job which involved a lot of travel and he picked up a book to pass the time. Now he reads nearly as much as I do.
I honestly don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have my wonderful books!
I shudder to image a world without books. I love that you remember your book that “clicked”. For me it was a chunky little abridged version of Little Women.
I think that sometimes non-readers make assumptions about reading which then make them feel that this is something they cannot do. 1) All readers enjoy classic or literary novels. No other book counts. I do not enjoy "hard" books so I am not a reader (Shame around reading choices) 2) Only books count. Graphic novels, audiobooks, magazines, reading a daily newspaper. This is not reading so I am not a reader (Snobbery about reading choices) 3) Real readers never give up on a book so I am must struggle through even though that means I will not want to pick up my book (Fear of failure perhaps) All of this type of thinking becomes a barrier. Perhaps people who keep reading learn to ignore or overcome these barriers. I rarely read literary novels, I read every type of book including picture books and I quickly give up on a story that bores me
Such great insight, Jane. I think as readers we need to do our part to be inclusive and welcoming to though who want to explore the reading lifestyle.