Crazy, crazy week. Classes started up, so I’m commuting to Long Beach once again for evening graduate seminars (I’m taking a semester-long deep dive into feminist approaches to the study of religion, which is my idea of good time. Seriously!). I just learned that I going to go from managing one other developer to a whole gaggle of geeks (or whatever it is that you call a gathering of programmers).
I wanted to throw a question out there. This is inspired by an informal survey conducted by the SF podcast, Escape Pod:
What (or who) inspired you to become a reader?
I’m assuming that most of you consider yourselves readers. You know who you are. I know plenty of literate people who are not readers.
Anyhow, I don’t remember learning to read. I went to kindergarten already reading, and my parents say that I taught myself, though much of what my parents say about certain topics is suspect. But I didn’t become an avid reader until much later.
In the fourth grade, Mrs. Wallace read the Wizard of Oz to us each day after recess. I think she did this to calm us down after recess–no mean task for thirty rowdy inner-city kids. Somehow I discovered that there was an entire series written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by John R. Neill, but our poorly stocked school library had none of them. I began requesting the books through the district bookmobile that came every Wednesday. When I exhausted this series, I began branching out, discovering Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, and many others. One of the great finds of my youth was a box full of my dad’s old SF books: Asimov, Clarke, Silverburg, Moorcock, and more.
I spend a lot of time these days reading, mostly non-fiction books–history, religion, science, culture, politics–but fantasy and science fiction are my first love. I don’t remember much else about Mrs. Wallace, except that when we had to write sentences with spelling words in them, she would let me cram all twenty words into as few sentences as possible, as long as they made sense. My record was one sentence with all twenty words (likely a run-on). Some of my first stories were a string of spelling sentences.
I don’t know if you’re still out there Mrs. Wallace, but thank you. I can’t think of a better gift a teacher can give to a child than a love of reading.
9 responses so far ↓
1 pilgrimgirl // Sep 1, 2006 at 10:59 pm
I can’t remember learning to read, nor can I remember reading easy-reader books. My earliest memories of books are Trixie Belden mysteries, the Boxcar children, and the Wrinkle in Time series. When I was young I preferred mysteries. Not so now–I almost never read suspense or mystery novels anymore.
A few early-reader memories: I often read for hours later than my bedtime–my room was at the end of the hall and no one seemed to notice if my light was on till the wee small hours. I had about 20 books in my bookshelf that I read, read and re-read. They were mostly Newberry award winners that my Mom bought for me for birthdays and Xmas. I was also a library addict–Mom took us often during the summer and I was always close to our school librarians because I would go in and read during recess or help shelve books after I had finished my busywork at school.
2 Miko // Sep 2, 2006 at 6:27 am
Perhaps a computation of geeks…I don’t remember learning how to read, either. I remember all my teachers being surprised at what level I was reading and what I had already read (they had issues finding stuff for me to read) and I remember kicking when we had the read-lots-of-books-and-get-free-pizza thing at school. To this day, Pizza Hut is the best reward I can be offered. Also the summer library reading thing, although I don’t remember as much about that. I remember what shaped what I wanted to read: my sister had a great collection of scifi and refused to let me so much as touch her books. So, of course, during the 30 minutes or so between when I got home from school and when she got home from school, I would sneak into her room and read them until just before she got home, when I would replace everything has it had been…
My dad had a bunch of books he thought were “innappropriate” for me, too. Including a 12 volume set of the Thousand Nights and One Night which tonnes of footnotes. Once I’d read everything in the house, I was old enough to walk to the library every weekend. I’m sure the librarians knew me, but I don’t remember them very well.
For some reason, I never liked re-reading things; to this day, I don’t like reading something I’ve already read & try not to buy books unless I’ll read them again.
I’m glad you had a Mrs. Wallace. I had a Mrs. Kelly, a Mr. Cieran, and many more; all of my favorite teachers were English teachers who tried to keep me interested in reading.
3 PodMonkeys // Sep 2, 2006 at 4:59 pm
For some reason, I vividly remember not only one of my walks to pre-school with my mom, but I also remember sitting in pre-school feeling big about myself because I could read the entire alphabet before I entered while no one else could.
I think it was the Dragon Lance, and Piers Anthony that really got me reading heavily. Asimov (those same old books of dad’s. Don’t forget War with the Newts!) and Lovecraft came next. Then after college, with the onset of a real world job, my reading pretty much tapered off and died a slow death in the fetal position in a corner.
It was ressurected with audio books during my 4-5 hours a day on the freeway getting to work and back. Now I read only a little here and there. Lovecraft, management, and Linux certification books.
4 PodMonkeys // Sep 2, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Sorry for the double post, but I forgot one.
Tove Jansson’s Moomin Troll books are what I remember reading heavily first, even before the Dragon Lance. I’d walk the 1.5-2 miles as a young kid to check the library for them. The librarians always looked at me like I was nuts when I asked if they had any. I even wrote a story about a Moomin Troll and a coffee bush.
5 Watt Mahoun // Sep 2, 2006 at 8:51 pm
I remember reading a lot of billboards…what can I say, I grew-up in Utah where there are more billboards than traffic signs. I also recall reading anything in sight and one night arguing with my sister over the pronunciation of ‘cafe’; I claimed it was pronouced ‘kaaf’ and she thought ‘kayf’. We were pretty angry at each other over the difference. Funny the kinds of things that pop out of distant memory.
My first reader in school was the Fun with Dick-Jane-Spot series, and I also remember reading something about a boy (could have been Dick but I think it was another reader character) who wanted to grow-up to be a quarterback just like Bart Starr. I recall being quite bored having already read so many interesting billboards.
I think these readers were already pretty out of date when I was in Kindergarten/first (1971-72) but the school district was probably under-funded and very conservative…Utah.
My favorite first book was “Cowboy Andy” which we now own and I’ve read to each of my kids…though they have favorite books of their own.
Thanks for bringing back the memories.
6 Elise Johnson // Sep 2, 2006 at 10:22 pm
Like many of you, I don’t remember “learning” to read. I just remember doing it. I know I loved getting story books at the library when I was four or five (my mom took me once a week and let me get six books, I think, which was the library limit). I remember getting my first public library card just before I entered kindergarten. My mom asked the librarian if I could have one and she said not until I could sign my name. I remember being pretty proud of my little signature - my mom had already taught me to write my name, so I could get the card.
I have two experiences that I specifically remember turning me into a reader. I was probably about six when my mom read the book “The Secret Garden” outloud to me when I was home sick. I remember she kept finishing a chapter and asking if I wanted to take a break. I was so involved in the story - I remember she just kept reading and reading. Finally she got tired so I said I’d read the next chapter and I did - outloud, nonetheless, so she could hear it too. The garden enchanted me and I wished (as I think most children do) that I could be an orphan for a month and have the adventures that a child with parents cannot.
The second was probably when I was about seven. My dad’s favorite book at the time was “Watership Down”. He said I was probably a bit too young for it, which made me want to read it even more, and so he agreed and we read it together, once again taking turns reading outloud. Since then, I’ve never gone back and read it again as an adult. But I’ve read a few summaries and remember the book well enough. Fiver and Hazel fascinated me - perhaps they played a part in the early development of my struggle with authority.
I’ve fought against a few of my own Chief Rabbits throughout the years.
My mom read religiously to me from the time I was an infant and so I thank her for my love of reading. We read after lunch and before bed. We read all summer long and visited the library once a week. I remember she had me read the newspaper every day during the summer so I would keep my reading skills up in between classes even when I was young. Thanks, mom!
7 PodMonkeys // Sep 3, 2006 at 4:37 am
John,
Pa was pretty proud that you were reading the bible to yourself before you ever entered school. I’ve heard him complaining about various school reform back in the day, claiming if a child is not able to perform up to par when they enter school because their parents never sat down and read to them, or taught them to read, then its the parents fault, and their child should be holding back the class.
Reading into that, I’m guessing we were read to and taught to read before school. Maybe they got you started, but you took off running with it.
8 Miko // Sep 3, 2006 at 7:27 am
Podmonkeys: I loved the Moomin Trolls! Although we owned most of the series and I knew better than to admit to anyone that I liked them :-p
Somethings Elise said reminded me: (1) my dad used to read the LotR series to me. Starting with the Hobbit. When I saw the first movie adaptations, I was so disappointed that Gandalf didn’t have my dad’s voice…Ian McKellen is pretty good, tho! (2) I also had to wait until I could write my name to get a library card. I think that was the only thing that encouraged me to learn to write (I could already type). I still have a valid library card for the King County system…with my very first signature on it. Although, it may no longer be technically valid since I got married…
9 John // Sep 3, 2006 at 9:00 pm
Watt Mahoun continued his riff on Cowboy Andy on his blog, MormAnarchy, complete with pictures!
My favorite stuffed animal growing up was a MoominTroll, and I think that it inspired the Moomin readings in the household PM and I grew up in. To this day, I have only read Moomin in Japanese (not in the English or the original Finnish), and only because my Mom forced me to.
I am encouraged that both Elise and Miko have dads who read them LoTR. I read the Hobbit and the first two books to the kiddos until things got too scary around Shelob’s lair.
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