join meeee on goooodreeeeeaads
GoodReads posted a "how goodreads members fell in love with reading" thing, so I added mine:
Once upon a time, my parents read books to me. Even when I was a baby who just wanted to chew on the book, they still read to me. Bicycle Bear. The Lupin Lady. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Owl Moon. Stellaluna. Aunt Isabella Tells a Good One. The Little Prince. Misty of Chincoteague. A Wrinkle in Time. Many more. And so I have always, always loved reading.
...Except, wait, flash forward a bit to the first grade, when I decided that I HATED reading. I am both autistic and have social anxiety, though I didn't have a diagnosis for either of those until I was much older. And in first grade, the way we "learned to read" was by sitting in a circle, going around the circle taking turns reading out loud. I do not remember any of the books we read, because I spent the entire time being absolutely terrified. I learned to associate reading with fear, and for about a year, I hated reading and wanted nothing to do with it.
I was saved in the second grade. Twice a year, my school had a book sale, once with the spaghetti supper and once with the ice cream social. I browsed the shelves listlessly, because I hated reading (because they taught me to be afraid of it) but I finally picked out a book called Julie's Wolf Pack. (I didn't know that it was the third in a series, and it didn't matter, because it's the only one from the wolves' pov, so it stands alone pretty well.)
I started reading it because we had silent reading time during class, and it BLEW MY MIND. I couldn't put it down. It made me laugh, and cry, and dream.
And from then on, books and I have been inseparable.
Once upon a time, my parents read books to me. Even when I was a baby who just wanted to chew on the book, they still read to me. Bicycle Bear. The Lupin Lady. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Owl Moon. Stellaluna. Aunt Isabella Tells a Good One. The Little Prince. Misty of Chincoteague. A Wrinkle in Time. Many more. And so I have always, always loved reading.
...Except, wait, flash forward a bit to the first grade, when I decided that I HATED reading. I am both autistic and have social anxiety, though I didn't have a diagnosis for either of those until I was much older. And in first grade, the way we "learned to read" was by sitting in a circle, going around the circle taking turns reading out loud. I do not remember any of the books we read, because I spent the entire time being absolutely terrified. I learned to associate reading with fear, and for about a year, I hated reading and wanted nothing to do with it.
I was saved in the second grade. Twice a year, my school had a book sale, once with the spaghetti supper and once with the ice cream social. I browsed the shelves listlessly, because I hated reading (because they taught me to be afraid of it) but I finally picked out a book called Julie's Wolf Pack. (I didn't know that it was the third in a series, and it didn't matter, because it's the only one from the wolves' pov, so it stands alone pretty well.)
I started reading it because we had silent reading time during class, and it BLEW MY MIND. I couldn't put it down. It made me laugh, and cry, and dream.
And from then on, books and I have been inseparable.