Comments on: Making Readers for Life

By: Shawn

Shawn — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:39:23 +0000

I think my experience mimics Laura Resnick’s. Reading was like talking … I don’t remember when I started. I remember Nancy Drew & Trixie Belden; I was deep into my mom’s Agatha Christie collection in the 4th grade; I discovered science fiction in the 5th grade; I’d exhausted the library options of anything interesting by the 7th grade; and in retrospect I’m grateful books were as cheap during my childhood as they were so my allowance could cover my burgeoning book addiction. I had bookshelves in my bedroom loaded with books by the time I was 13.

I disliked most of the literature I was forced to read for school. And I read a LOT of literature in high school and college. I preferred Shakespeare to most of the rest, and I think it’s because he wasn’t writing literature; he was writing plays designed to entertain the masses.

I think reading has to be nurtured in children by their parents before the schools get ahold of them. Certainly, I am a passionate reader IN SPITE OF my English classes, not because of them.

By: Angelo Crapanzano

Angelo Crapanzano — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:26:31 +0000

I am one of those people who likes all types of books. The only thing I like in the books I read is a happy ending. I have enough reality in my life that I want to get away from reality. All people are different. I had to kidd a few of my friends into ready my books. There are some people who just don’t like to read. The one thing that entices them is that all my books have a piece of my own life in them. I’m 82 years old. As an engineer I’ve had a lot of experience. The romances in my books are woven in with exciting adventure. My wife is one of those people who hates to read. She has read only one of my books. that was because she was interested in a romance I had before I met her. She like many people is very active. She just can’t sit still that long. My books also covers the whole field, from science fiction to romance to christian novels but they all have a passionate romance woven in. I don’t worry about the people who don’t like to read. There are plenty of people whio do. I enjoy reading because books take me to places that I would otherwise never visit.

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:57:27 +0000

I, too, loved the Trixie Beldon books, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, however, the book that captured my romantic heart forever was A Time for Tenderness by Betty Cavanna. She was a beautiful, prolific writer and read every book I could find of hers.

By: C.L. Wilson

C.L. Wilson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:46:00 +0000

Anna – your mom sounds like my mom! Every house we ever lived in, we left with at least one room that had a complete wall of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. We used to call Mom “The Walking Encyclopedia”. She reads everything–across all genres–and retains a decidedly frightening amount of what she reads!

i read bunches of the RD Condensed books too, as well as the Victoria Holt and Jean Plaidy’s

By: C.L. Wilson

C.L. Wilson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:35:31 +0000

Laura said

I, an avid young reader, found it sheer torture to wade through, ages 11 to 18: Silas Marner; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Ethan Frome; The Pearl; etc.

Though I was a voracious reader throughout my youth, I consistently hated my literature homework.

And then, having done THAT to generations of Americans, people are mystified that so few Americans read books.

LOL. You said it better than I did

Connie – I remember walking more than a mile home–through the woods!–in Bethesda, Maryland (a suburb of Washington DC. I live out in the sticks 15 miles east of a small Florida gulf coast town, and I’m only now starting to let my kids walk home from the bus stop! (And I loved Cinderella – never tire of reading or watching all its the various iterations – including the movie version with Drew Barrymore and Angelica Huston)

By: C.L. Wilson

C.L. Wilson — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:27:39 +0000

Sharron said:

I know this sounds corny but I fell in love with the Nancy Drew series

not corny at all! I read them all, too

Vicki, I think I’ve read The Good Earth, but it’s been too long for me to remember the details.

By: Anna Small

Anna Small — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:41:24 +0000

I read all my mom’s Reader’s Digest Condensed Books! I was probably in elementary school. I esp remember Nicholas & Alexandra – it was my first historical read and from there I read all my mom’s Jean Plaidys and Victoria Holts. Then it was the Brontes and Margaret Mitchell (see a trend?!) so when I wrote my first romance at 16, it was a historical. I disappear into the story and feel the emotions, see the action, hear them, love them, etc….I feel that way when I write – if I didn’t, I don’t think I would enjoy writing. If it weren’t that my mom and grandma were extreme readers, I probably wouldn’t have the bug. My daughter (11) also read all 4 Twilights and when she commented how much she loves the last one because of the “love scene” I told her, congratulations – you are now a romance reader!!!!

By: Connie Gillam

Connie Gillam — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:35:11 +0000

Cinderella was the first book I read that sent me back to the library for more. I was five or six and I walked to the library by myself. Those days are dead and gone.

Connie

By: Laura Resnick

Laura Resnick — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:51:40 +0000

I grew up in a family of avid readers and had thought of reading as fun even before I could do it. But to the kids I grew up with who were NOT being raised among readers, THEIR exposure to reading and their understanding of reading entailed was completely defined by book after book after book that, I, an avid young reader, found it sheer torture to wade through, ages 11 to 18: Silas Marner; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Ethan Frome; The Pearl; etc.

Though I was a voracious reader throughout my youth, I consistently hated my literature homework.

And then, having done THAT to generations of Americans, people are mystified that so few Americans read books. Might as well be mystified that, as adults, very few adult women choose to don gym uniforms, play touch-football, and shower in public.

By: Vicki

Vicki — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:16:17 +0000

I’m like Sharron, I grew up first reading Trixie Bleden and then Nancy Drew. My aunt had every HQ book written and after reading the first one (so sorry I don’t remember who the author was), I was hooked. Then in jr. high we had to read a book from a list. They were all hugh books and none of them sounded interesting at all. I picked The Good Earth and omg, it was amazing. Imagine finding out in the 8th grade there was a love story inside a book that was required to read.