Guardian Newspaper 1000 Novels discussion

Mine was in childhood. I remember being 5 years old and getting very excited on Fridays as my Dad used to bring home a new ladybird book for me.
Then in 1977, when I was 8 years old, I read my Aunt's copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Fell head over heels, I get all nostalgic thinking of the smell and feel of the paper, the illustrations not to mention the story. I spent that summer with my Gran a lot and read the entire Oz series, in the garden, woods, bedroom. Everytime I see something Oz related I get flashbacks to that lovely time with my beloved Gran and new found love of books. I haven't looked back since.
Sentimental idiot that I am, I bought a copy of The Wizard of Oz years before I started a family. My kids love it as much as I did and our favourite rainy day activity is cuddles on the sofa watching Judy Garland's Wizard of oz.
Books are now a family obsession :)

When I received the entire Little House on the Prairie series for Christmas when I was around 9 years old. I still have them and have just started reading them aloud to my 7 year old son. :)

I loved Little House on the Prairie too. I need to read it again with my children.

I always loved books. I was in the book of the month club at a very young age, reading such greats as Mr Grumpy and the Kitten. My friends called me a bookworm. In college I took literature coarses as electives. For a while I was a science fiction junkie. As my vision deteriorated, my reading declined. Now, with the advent of ebooks and audiobooks, I'm in full swing again. I'm even reading printed books with the aid of a magnifier. It's a serious inconvenience, but many books just aren't available electronically. I am thankful that the information age has rekindled (pun intended) my love of reading books.

This is a great thread. Will add to it when feeling better, but really interesting to just read these responses. And thanks Buck for that pun, made me smile!

I was in a book of the month club, too, Buck, as a kid, but I started out with mysteries. I've always been the bespectacled beyond near-sighted kid (with no other complications), but when I finally discovered hard contact lenses in my 20s, my eyes did quit getting worse. My optometrist just shakes his head and hopes I can always wear them.

I remember pestering my mother to read Make Way for Ducklings to me when I was about 5. My father swears he knew every word in one of our Richard Scarry books since it was my bedtime story for months on end. I can also remember how happy I was once I could read by myself. We went to a large library in the centre of town every two weeks and it was a big treat.

My mother language is Afrikaans and I battled with English until I was introduced to Enid Blyton and then it just fell into place. I still have a book award I received for 230+ English books which I read when I was 12.

We started reading bedtime stories to our girls as soon as they could sit, so from about 6 months old. I'm quite happy that the youngest one considers not getting a bedtime story to be the worst punishment that can be inflicted on her! They're now both learning to read now and I hope they'll continue enjoying it.

Carolien wrote: "I remember pestering my mother to read Make Way for Ducklings to me when I was about 5. My father swears he knew every word in one of our Richard Scarry books since it w..."

It does seem that book fascination begins early; I agree that children who are read to as soon as they can sit tend to be happy readers. And it's the least we can do to facilitate it (and I only hide the ones I really can't stand to read over and over and over)

I've always loved and been surrounded by books. I can't remember a time without them.