I want to start a somewhat different sort of conversation here: What made you into a book reader?

[PDJane]

23. My mother read to me.

She claims I taught myself to read, but since I was sounding out words early, I assume that she or my grandmother or someone taught me how to read. I could read well when I got to grade school, was able to read everything in the school library. As a consequence, I aced everything except math, and didn't get that until I was well out of high school, being rehabilitated after an accident and a head injury. One of my instructors found out that I could barely do basic addition or subtraction.........if I could use my fingers. He took me from grade two math to grade twelve in six months. I have been eternally grateful to him, because he gave me the grounding for other things; technical math, chemistry, science, all the basics.

I read from the time I was a child; I read for information, for amusement, for escape and to understand what they now call 'the big picture.' If I had had my ability taken away during the accident, I doubt that I would have made a recovery at all. As it is, I have paresthesia; it's not as much fun as it sounds as though it should be. I am grateful that the damage didn't include intellectual abilities; there are far worse things than paresthesia, a hearing problem that means I don't hang out in crowded places much, because all the noise sounds as though it is coming from directly in front of me, and bum knees and hips which are slated to be replaced. I do have some retrograde amnesia, but from what I do remember, that may be a blessing!

My son is a reader, too, mostly e-books because he has nowhere to store the real paper kind. I remember him reading the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire the summer he turned ten; for a few months his favourite phrase was "spurious verisimilitude."