three, five or ten?

Well shoot, I thought I had responded to this... I started reading early, age 4 or so, supposedly self taught. I remember the Dr. Seuss books, Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, Dr. Doolittle, many, many more. When I got older I started reading my mom's science fiction, including Heinlein and Asimov. Also fantasy such as Lord of the Rings, the Elric books, etc. Narnia too!

Hi rabbit, I know I could read before school and can't actually remember not reading. I never liked animal books but was a huge fan of Enid Blyton, big fat history books and remember the Borrowers as a favourite. We had a brillian library too and kept trying to sneak into the grown up section as their books looked better, they gave in in the end and I remember soaking up anything about the Tudors before 10 and then got addicted to P.G.Wodehouse who was a brilliantly funny writer. I taught my son to read phonetically when he was just past 3, if you teach it the way I did it is so easy and fun. He's a huge book fan but has more or less got through all the English books I pre bought and brought out, and friends were posting Enid Blyton ones out to him. I'll have to see if anyone can get P.G for him as he'd probably love those - that was Pelham Granville for those not in the know. Like me he's a huge history book fan in either Greek or English language, but we must be stuck with the most expensive books in the world out here and not a single discount book shop.

I spent my early years living at Gosport (near Portsmouth, England's naval centre) during the war years. I have many vivid memories of my early life, even pre-school life, but not a great many connected with school, except for spending a lot of time in the shelters. I know I loved school during lesson times but NOT during play times. I never mixed with other children. I spent much time sitting in the classroom during lunch breaks, reading Jane Eyre, Little Women, Lorna Doone and Great Expectations. They would have all been before I was 9 but I don't know when I started or how I learned to read. I know I wouldn't have received any help at home, so it must have been at school.

I can remember learning to read with 'Old Lob' who if I remember correctly had a farm. Then I moved on to books by Enid Blyton and the Flying Doctor but that was later too. I read a lot in school days and was always at the library. Not now though and I only seem to read when I'm travelling by train or plane.

Hi there, Well reading starts with our acquiring the basic things as we are still kids. The most interesting part here is that things come quite easily at this stage compared to that of now. Had been in identical environment I would have been speaking ten odd languages but now instead of acquiring we tend to learn and learning is a difficult process. As of my first fascination it was a series specially written for the teen aged and I remember I read as many as 25 of the total 32 of the entire series. It was sort of addiction and never minded where and when I read them. Now I fondly remember those funny days.

apart from standard text books i was not much into reading. however i did used to read short stories (moral-stories and fairy-tales). but instead i was a huge fan of comics (i wonder if that can be considered as 'reading')...and in particular i was addicted to Tintin.

Reading with my mother and grandmother was a great experience for me. It was grade-school reading that tended to kill me. I learned the majority of my reading skills and my love for reading from my mother and grandmother. My parents and my grandmother, were all very well-read people. My brother was also a very well-read person, and he was younger than me. He learned how to completely read the "Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky Scandal" by the time he was eight. My brother want to be in politics after reading that article.

Oh, my goodness, no one mentioned Doctor Seuss? He was the master of children's books and illustration with no equal. In high school I was inspired to do a book report on Horton Hears a Who. Embedded in the story I saw many social and political links, even a commentary of the draft, when the boy saw his duty to the community. This was while the draft was active, during the early 70's. Then there was Tolkien and his Middle Earth stories, from The Hobbit to the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, introduced during my junior high years. Many an insomniac night I finished it less than a week. William Golding's "Lord of the Flies" haunted me during the teen years as well. I was really disappointed with the 90's movie version. Afterword I was able to acquire the original 60's version. It is most superior, and follows the book better. I still remember some earlier works during the pre-elementary years; "See Spot run. Run, Spot! Run!" And the songbook that taught me the words to many patriotic songs, like ... what is the official title to the song that goes "Oh, Beautiful, For Spacious Skies, For amber waves of grain ..." Is it the first line or "America?"

Yeah, it was a long while ago since I read anything. And speaking of childhood reading, I remember loving the story, The Folk of The Faraway Tree so much. It was such an awesome story about the magical forest and I remember reading it 2-3 times. In fact, nowadays, I'm still trying to get a-hold of this book. I do want to read it once more and relive my childhood reading days. The book was so graphic in the magical forest and I was imagining how it was like, with the friends coming from the human world being able to have an adventure up there, above the trees. Awesome..

hi jb blue bunny you we did not have any kindergarten in our small town when I was little so my mom taught me to read at about five,she had read to me all the time, then taught me to read, oh we had the Elsie Dinsmore books which I hated, and then Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry finn, then the Baum books the Wizard of oz a nd Lousia May Alcotts booksLittle Women,,little men, JO's boys, then when I was a bit older I was into A Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.OH I loved the Narnia series too. I remember as a preteen being engrossed with a series Called Grostark, and now they are almost impossible to find. very romantic and appealed to a young naive teen. Also as a kid I loved the Five Little Peppers and How they grew,now they look sort of hokey to me so I don't know. the magic Garden was another favorite of mine.

I was probably four or five when I learned to read because my mother read out loud to me all the time. I loved the written word then as I do now. My mother read Tom Sawyer to me and fairy tales also. My grandmother read short stories from her old primer as well. I can remember the stories to this day.

I always loved books and remember having a "Happy Ventures" reading book with such captivating narrative as "This is D!ck. This is Dora. See D!ck run" (myLot wont let me use his full name!) before I went to school & I think I still have one called "Old Dog Tom" on the bookshelf. My mum used to encourage me to 'sound out' the letters and blend the words... that was back in the mid-to-late 50's & she always claims to know nothing, having been a sickly child and missed so much of her own schooling. Well, she did a good job there!

Hello, Judith. I was about 4 - 5 when I started to read, and I loved Enid Blyton - started on the Faraway Tree, moved on to the Secret 7, then the Famous 5, before graduating to Mallory Towers and St Clare's. I begged my mother to send me to boarding school, and I was psychologically scarred for life when she refused. I know it's fashionable to rubbish Enid Blyton, but she got generations of children into reading, so where's the harm in that? And she certainly told a good story. These days, I like murder mysteries and thrillers, and I go back to the classics every now and again for a re-read. I wouldn't want to carry on living if I didn't have access to plenty of books.

My teachers and parents at first actually thought I was a little bit slow because of my lack of reading. It was in grade 3 when my mom began reading Captain Underpants to me and I loved it! Then for some reason one night she was unable to read to me before bed so I decided I would try it myself and I've loved reading ever since. Today my reading and vocabulary level is far above most in my age group thanks to that night.

I was a little older than most because I struggled with dyslexia and back then it wasn't as widely known as it is today. I never liked reading until I seen a specialist and was able to retain my brain to read from left to right instead of the other way around. I like reading now but, never really have the time. My son started reading at about 3 and now he is reading at the second grade level but, he's in kindergarten.

well ..thank god i don't remember any of those painful stuff i would have had to go through to learn how to read.. my memory completely fails me on this one.. for as long as i can remember i started reading children's digest and cartoon comics when i was 6 or 7...

My grandma actually started teaching me words when I was a little over two. I actually don't remember, but I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it. When I was little, I loved to show off my reading skills, so I tried to read every word I saw. I read the Harry Potter books in first grade, but I hated them. I thought they were boring and long. But that was probably because I was young, because when I went back to read them in sixth grade, I found that I loved them and had to finish them all in a week. When I was younger, I remember that I especially loved rhyming books and popup ones =)

sobering reading ,reading people understand that the road ahead

Hi jb, I don't remember the exact age when I realized I could read, it just seemed that one day the letters finally made sense to me. I went through the Dr. Seuss books and others but mostly read comic books (superhero) thanks to three older brothers. But the most vivid memory I have is 7 years old and I was reading but when I would read out loud, the words were slow and the sentences were disjointed due to the slowness of pronouncing the words. My grade school teacher made me take the book home (believe it or not, it was a book about a rabbit, for the life of me I think it was Peter Cottontail but the little kid version but I do know it was a rabbit) and I had to learn to read it so that it "sounded" right and I had to do it in front of my classmates. Well, suffice to say, I managed to do it okay, not really reading it as much as memorizing the book and verbally reciting it. I also learned that I have severe anxiety in speaking in front of groups now. But the incident never turned me away from books, just from being in front of a group. I then grew up with Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown Series, James and the Giant Peach, The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, also a lot of Sci-fi books.

I was 3 or 4 and reading fairy tale books also I had a record that went along with it that helped me to read and understand them.