When did you people realize that you are in love with books ?

Do you remember ? Or you never realized it yet ?

What a great question. I knew I was in love with reading when I discovered "Treasure Island". I was seven or eight and on vacation. Didn't care much about the vacation but I never wanted that book to end. What joy, my love of reading has been a life long vacation!

Suzanne wrote:my love of reading has been a life long vacation!

aint it the truth!

reminds me of the beatles lyric from "the inner light"

Without going out of my door
I can know all things on earth
With out looking out of my window
I can know the ways of heaven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oSuzEqHOcE

one of my earliest memories of being transported while reading was a series of kids books my Father used to buy me called "the new Tom Swift adventures" or something like that.
Damn i had some fun galavanting around space

ahhhhhh

The Tao Te Ching, passage 47:

Without going outside his door, one understands (all that takes place) under the sky;

Without looking out from his window, one sees the Tao of Heaven.

The farther that one goes out (from himself), the less he knows.

Therefore the sages got their knowledge without traveling;

Gave their (right) names to things without seeing them;

And accomplished their ends without any purpose of doing so.

Suzanne,
Do you think, people take up the reading habit from childhood ?

Youkrust also has his first memories about a kids book..

I turned a book lover even before I started reading.. My sister used to read stories to me when I was of two or three years.. I think I started reading kids book @ four.. But I started reading English books much later, when I was 15 or 16..

I do think reading begins in childhood. Not only did my mother read to me often but I saw her reading. Seeing your parents read makes an impact on kids. Children need to see that reading is important. When my son was in third and fourth grade he would take his pillows and blankets and books into my room and make a "nest" on my floor next to my reading light so we could both read at night. This was something we both shared because it was often after everyone else was asleep. He would ask me, "what are you reading about"? And then he would tell me what he was reading. This type of sharing has given him a love for reading because it is something he can share.

Out of curiosity, I called up four guys, who are hardcore book fanatics and asked the same question..

Three out of the four said they started reading as kids..
One guy started reading from the college library,that is when he was 17.

Is there anyone out there who took up reading after 2os?

I didn't realise my love for books until I was in my 20's. I was always encouraged as a child to read but never really enjoyed it.

I think now that I'm more comfortable and more appreciative of time on my own it made it possible for me to discover that I love to read.

Suzanne, "Treasure Island" was a big one for me too!

For me my real love of books started when I was 10 years old living at the Cleveland Christian Home. There was a library room we all could visit any time we liked and I found myself there a few times per week. Some of the books I read out of that library were "For the love of Benji" and "Snow Bound."

I found out when I was presented with a collection of "poems for children" entitled Rutabaga stories. (Which I find horrible now and refused to give them to my children). I then found the "Jabberwocky" which confused me terribly but I liked the sound of it (I think I was about 7 or so). Then I was read "fairytales" by Gottfried Keller and Fontaine,before going to sleep which I adored and was hooked thereafter.

I began to read around age 7 and was drawn immediately to military history. Don't ask me why as I don't know myself. Soon I learned though that the best books on military history were in English, so I started to collect those. If you begin with one time period, for example the Roman Empire, you want to know what came before and after it. That way the story never ends and one keeps on reading.