Hello to all
Just finished my pie floater and it got me wondering...
Our ffamily pride itself on being avid readers, or rather three out of four of us are.
My hubbie, myself and my son (21) read like addicts, cant go to sleep unless we've read a dozen pages or so at least, every night. My son was really a late reader but once he got going he was voracious. He read and understood (I know coz I tried to catch him out) Shakespeare at nine yrs old, and we still go to plays together now.
MY hubbie and son now read mostly sci-fi novels and the ubiqiutous Pratchett (im the only Jasper fan, although they have read them, they dont dream of the next book like I do, or begin having sleepless nights with excitement as the release date comes up)
My daughter, however, read very early,was really quite fluent by five when she started school, but never really progressed past Enid Blyton. Even now she reads maybe two books a year and they are very lightweight chicklit stuff. She prefers crosswords and puzzles and knitting for relaxation.
So what are your family's readng habits like?

I think you're writing about my family! Both my parents were teachers and voracious readers -- now that they've both retired, they finally have some time to read all the books they didn't have time to read before. I've been reading as long as I can remember and attribute my short-sightedness to too much staying up late and reading in bed with only the nightlight for illumination. My sister is the same. I can't think of a store I'd rather visit than a bookstore -- I could just browse for hours.

My husband came late to reading somehow, but now is rarely without several books on the go. Our daughter has been read to almost since birth and although still too young to read, will sit quietly on her own, dragging her finger across the text of a book and reciting the story as she remembers it to be.

H.I.T.W
That's fantastic, one up for nurture then.
I am severely disabled and at the moment am having to drive 180 miles (round trip) every week to a large teaching hospital for investigations. The only thing that makes it bearable is on the way home we call in at a humungous bookstore, within which is a music store, stationary shop (another of my passions) and a Starbucks Coffee house! Its open till 10pm so we stay in there for ages browsing, choosing a book then taking it into the coffee area and reading it with a mocha and a muffin -sheer bliss after a painful day of prodding and poking!
I actually look forward to the next lot of tests some weeks!
TTFN

Well, my mum reads occasionally but claims lack of time but it's one of those if she really wanted to she would make time blah blah blah, dad is a big reader and loves his books. Both of my parents read to me from a young age and continued to read even after I started reading sharing bigger books which I think was a good thing as it gave me good models to follow and points to reach. However from a professional point of view I am interested in this as I am in the process of teaching my itty bitty P1s to read at the mo using phonics! and trying to encourage my not quite so but still itty bitty 2s to enjoy reading.

I suppose it was a combination of my parents reading and me enjoying the stories as I remember the very first book I read by my self (The Enormous Turnip) and things grew from there. Hopefully my pupils will enjoy reading, there is a big writing drive in the school at the moment which ties in well with reading and I am lucky as most of them LOVE making their own books and writing letters and also copying out their favourite books. Today I read them a great book I found last night called "Tho Mole Who Knew it was None of his Buisiness" which cracked me up! Hopefully the children will become readers, I am just trying to introduce as many bright and colourful books that they want to handle and interact with.

Do any parents or other people who read to children have any firm favourites that my 5,6 and 7 year olds would like? It would be great to have some more ideas from you very creative people!!!

:D

Hmmm.... I am the odd one out. At least, I was. Sadly I do not have as much time to read as I would like at the moment.

My sister reads light stuff, my mom various detective/whodunnit stories. My dad... reads his own stuff before sending it to the paper. I read anything you put in front of me.

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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

All big readers, learned to read early and read Lord of the Rings at age 6&7. Mum used to read a lot to us as well.
My bro complains that I read so much fantasy, but that is his problem!

I started reading to my son before he could sit up. I think these days it is something that must be instilled, at least at first. Then they either get it or they don't.

I am lucky. My son gets it. He is cursed, because so few of his peers do. Now what????

Both my parents have read for pleasure, but dad no longer does (health reasons). my only sister reads a bit.

I met mrs. SkidMarks in a bookshop, so if we ever decided to breed, there is little chance that the offspring would avoid books.

I inherited a genetic disposition to books. I was raised in a family which loved books, both technical and otherwise, and I cannot imagine how it would be not to have books around.

My wife came from the opposite side of life. Apart from cooking, gardening and a couple of carpentry books, there was no reading material in the house.

I've since trained her and she does read some books - any increase from zero is infinite - and our daughter is an avid reader. She steals mt TP and denies having them, reads JFF but, knew the first three Harry Potter bokks by heart and has greast research ability.

When she was about 7 microcephalopachysaurus was the word.

At four it was 'Pandemonium' and in a fit of creative writing when she missed a day at school I stated that a large pandemonium had kidnapped her and taken her to the botanical gardens for a cold coffee and biscuits. The teacher loved it, read it out to the class, and said that similarly inspired excuses would be appreciated.

I spent some years drafting Ministerial replies and other departmental verbiosities but few of them gave me any where near as much satisfaction as that.

I'm the only one who reads in my house, aside from my grandmother (who reads mills and boons fluff quite happily, but not much else) and my brother (who steals my terry pratchett books, but says Robert Rankin is too weird to pinch). I was taught to read by my grandmother (who was a eng lit teacher and librarian) and have always read a lot. I was probably the only seven year old kid who was told off for trying to read by the light coming from the bathroom down the hall in bed. Or at least, the only one reading Thomas Covenant.
But really, none of my family are 'readers' as such.

As the latest issue of "The Brentford Mercury has just arrived, I anticipate a full account of the festivities of and for Lady Raygun and Robert Rankin.

I think one of my excuse letters states that I was kept home for a day due to having contracted sanity and there was a risk that it may be contagious. Not sure if that was ever corrected to account for the more mundane common cold I actually had....

I used to like having to wear a blazer at school: the mass market paperbacks (WHY DO THEY NOT SEEM TO LIKE THOSE ANYMORE!!!! *hiss*) fit perfectly into a pocket.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

I sort of agree with him! How is he?
I didn't like that Rankin titled something along the lines of sex drugs and rock n roll- don't remember actual title. I quite liked The witches of chiswick though.

"Sex and Drugs and Sausage Rolls"

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My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

One of my other passions, aside from Pterry and JFf, has been the Great Western Railway and that's been dead for 49 years. The only way you can find things out is to read and talk to the people that do remember. Mum and Dad are both readers, my sister devours books esp. Pterry and JFf. Mrs CannibalRabbit willnot go anywhere near any "wierd" stuff - Dr Who, StarGate, JFf . . . . .

I guess that I'm in the nuture and need camp.

(side stepping the main convo for a moment- He's good, working and training to be a radio dj)

Both my mom and her mum read a good amount, me dad may read a book every now and then. But I am the biggest reader of them all (I spend an hour or more reading a day*)


My mom's into Fforde, Janet Evanovich, and now that we have found him, Christopher Moore (namely Lamb)




*Most Days

I had a sideslip moment when I read the title of this thread.

Why should anyone have a love of Reading, being a town not a million miles to the east of Swindon.

I remember a ring road, the membership secretary of the BSFA lived there in 1977, and little else?

My entire family are big readers, my dad perhaps the least of us, but he does enjoy a good book, he's just into the nonfiction stuff, whereas my siblings and I are all into sci-fi and fantasy. My mother and her sister are both voracious readers. I think it's because of my mom's love of reading that her children are so into it. I at least benefited from being the third child, which meant that in addition to the book I was given, I was able to pick and choose from the books given to my older siblings. I think I'm one of the biggest readers out of the children in my family. I never was grounded when I was under my parent's roof, but I did occasionally have my books taken away so that I would get my work done.

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You kids with your long hair and Baroque music...

I was locked out of my room. Because being locked in it was no hardship. :P

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland