Early Reading Meme
Wednesday November 15, 2006 in books | meme
This is from Kate’s Book Blog. It’s all about the process of becoming a reader and our earliest reading experiences. Questions by Kate, answers by me.
1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?
I was taught at school and I think I was quite a late reader. Looking back, I can’t think of any really inspiring English teacher until I studied for my A levels. My grandmother always went out of the way to read to me when I was a small child, so I guess she was a great inspiration.
2. Did you own any books as a child? If so, what’s the first one that you remember owning? If not, do you recall any of the first titles that you borrowed from the library?
As a very young child I remember owning a picture book called Harry the Dirty Dog. I saw it in the local library when I first started taking my daughter and we read it together which was an interesting experience.
Later Just William and Famous Five that I’d inherited from my mother, and from the library as I child I borrowed every Dr Seuss book that I could lay my hands on.
3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?
I was very conscious of books being expensive objects and that they could always be found for free in libraries. Something I inherited from my parents I suppose. So the first books I bought with my own money were second-hand ones, and these were mostly science fiction. In a short period I got through piles of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and AE Van Vogt. Curiously, I’ve only just got back into science fiction in the last five years.
4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often?
Not really. I suppose the Dr Seuss books were easy to re-read, and I also enjoyed re-reading Spike Milligan’s books and poems.
5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?
Jaws by Peter Benchley and Magic by William Goldman cetainly opened up an adult world to me, and I read them aged about 12. The first real piece of literature I read was Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four aged 13. Round about the same time I read all of the Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels, and the first true classic I read was Great Expectations.
6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones?
I never read Peter Pan as a child, and I have since enjoyed reading it aloud to my daughter (it’s a great one for ham acting when you do the different voices). Similarly I enjoyed reading Alice in Wonderland aloud, although I found the writing style quite dated.
Since becoming a parent I’ve tried to become more aware of children’s literature, forcing myself to read Harry Potter, which I enjoyed, and His Dark Materials, which I loved. I find I can also enjoy books for the very young that are obvious classics, such as The Gruffalo and everything else by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.