The first library I ever went to was this very old, run down building with cathedral ceilings and lots of pillars in Canton, Ohio. I have no idea what my impression of it would be today, but to a rather gloomy 5 year old, it was very much like a haunted house. I was both enamored of it and terrified by it.
How did you learn to enjoy reading?
- Thread starter wynn
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The first library I ever went to was this very old, run down building with cathedral ceilings and lots of pillars in Canton, Ohio. I have no idea what my impression of it would be today, but to a rather gloomy 5 year old, it was very much like a haunted house. I was both enamored of it and terrified by it.
that is what i am talking about . You have all I say all the symptoms. Your like my child also .
I tricked my son into reading . I told him I would play monopoly with him when he could read the cards . He worked his ass off . Kind of a let down for him except he gets a life time of enjoyment because of it . That boy can read . He types 127 words a minute with out a mistake . Well he makes a mistake sometimes but very rare
I've had a lot of seizures for which the symptoms are--to the best of my knowledge--very much like a form of dyslexia; my speech and verbal comprehension is affected in a somewhat similar manner.
I can't imagine having to struggle with that all of the time.
You are the opposite of me . I could not deal with seizures a lot . I have had a few . About 4 bad ones . One real bad one . I wonder if there is some kind of connection ?
Learning to read does not guarantee that one will enjoy reading.
Can you think of what would be necessary for you to not enjoy reading?
This is the first book I ever read.
I must have read it hundreds of times. I saw one a couple of years ago, and picked it up to have a look.
It is complete garbage, even for a five year old. Still sells though.
Oddly enough, a small film has been made of the book which gets very good reviews.
Maybe the amazingly popular Enid Blyton's ideas were better than her writing,
and enabled young people to seize on those rather than the content.
I must have read it hundreds of times. I saw one a couple of years ago, and picked it up to have a look.
It is complete garbage, even for a five year old. Still sells though.
Oddly enough, a small film has been made of the book which gets very good reviews.
Maybe the amazingly popular Enid Blyton's ideas were better than her writing,
and enabled young people to seize on those rather than the content.
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Twelve
Registered Senior Member
Sometimes you can enjoy reading, but sometimes it's just like a chore, another task.
Reading is like any other activity. I think that it can only be enjoyed if you are having fun with that reading, or you are feeling that you are learning something interesting or useful.
Yes, delight in learning.
We are made to find reward in learning.
We need to learn to survive, therefore nature rewards it with pleasure.
Shakespeare spoke in As you like it of
......the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
That was because the schoolboy felt he could learn more outside of school, surely.
We are made to find reward in learning.
We need to learn to survive, therefore nature rewards it with pleasure.
Shakespeare spoke in As you like it of
......the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
That was because the schoolboy felt he could learn more outside of school, surely.
This is the first book I ever read.
I must have read it hundreds of times. I saw one a couple of years ago, and picked it up to have a look.
It is complete garbage, even for a five year old. Still sells though.
Oddly enough, a small film has been made of the book which gets very good reviews.
Maybe the amazingly popular Enid Blyton's ideas were better than her writing,
and enabled young people to seize on those rather than the content.
oooh this was one of my first library books, this one and the one about the Faraway Tree. I really liked that kind of escapist fantasy at one point.
Good topic! I hated reading when I was young. I think it was due to the horrible education system where I grew up. I usually read the books that I had to for school, but I did it begrudgingly. I also read the bible a lot when I was young, I was raised catholic and belieed in it for a while, so I read that a lot. I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" it though. Then when I was a senior in high school, I took a class called "creative writing and Science fiction". The Teacher, Mrs. Osbourne was a gem! She knew that Rockford School systems were shite and made a serious effort to make her class unique. I don't clearly remember the books she had us read, but I remember that it wasn't so much the books that I liked, but the depth analysis and discussions we would have in class! It gave me a passion for reading and taught me why it is important to read. A few months ago, I heard that she died, it actually hit me kind of hard.
I enjoyed reading from the very start. My kindergarten teacher told my mother that I was ready to learn to read, but she was not allowed to teach me. That didn't come until the first grade. The process was frustrating; we would form circles, with everyone taking a turn reading aloud. I would get bored waiting, listening to the other kids read in a droning monotone, stumbling over word pronunciations, and would just begin reading the book. The teacher would have to get my attention when it was again my turn to read aloud, and I would have to go back several pages to find my place. This would generally cause laughter in the group, and as my first grade teacher was a horrible bitch who had no business being around young children, she did not discourage this. I should have just been excused from the circle, and allowed to go and read by myself, but I suppose this would have deviated from the lesson plan.
Somewhere around this time, my family bought a copy of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I loved that book, and read it over and over. The perfect escapist fantasy for a child. Unlike the institutional educational system that did its best to make me dislike reading, my parents were both readers, and encouraged my interest. Regular trips to the library were a part of life. Thinking back to the children's section of the Hayward library brings only happy memories of books such as Where the Wild Things Are.
I only had to learn to read; the enjoyment of it came naturally.
Somewhere around this time, my family bought a copy of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I loved that book, and read it over and over. The perfect escapist fantasy for a child. Unlike the institutional educational system that did its best to make me dislike reading, my parents were both readers, and encouraged my interest. Regular trips to the library were a part of life. Thinking back to the children's section of the Hayward library brings only happy memories of books such as Where the Wild Things Are.
I only had to learn to read; the enjoyment of it came naturally.
Educators, politicians and others complain that people don't read enough. There are state-sponsored campaigns to encourage people to read.
And yet there are so many taboos in this. So many questions that one is not supposed to ask. So many things to gloss over. So many things to take for granted.
Why?
And yet there are so many taboos in this. So many questions that one is not supposed to ask. So many things to gloss over. So many things to take for granted.
Why?
That would be the theory, yes.
Learning to pretend and to lie (aka "ordinary school education") is ... enjoyable, yes ...
Love goes toward love as schoolboys from their books,
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.
"Romeo And Juliet" Act 2, scene 2
My earliest memory of actually getting a kick out of it was reading short story books on He-Man and The Transformers. I was 5 I think. I have earlier memories of learning to read but nothing really grabbed me and made me want to read more until I found tales and poems that humoured me.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
I was fascinated by the whole concept of written language as a child. When they first began teaching us to read and write in the first grade, I kept jumping ahead, trying to figure out how to spell new words from the way other words were spelled. English spelling is nearly chaotic, but I found it to be quite an enjoyable game, for example guessing whether a K sound would be spelled C or K in a word, whether a J sound would be G or J, etc. My mother started giving me books to read as soon as she thought I was able, which I think was in the second grade with The Wizard of Oz.
I didn't have to "learn to enjoy reading," it was naturally enjoyable. There wasn't very much on TV in 1951, so books didn't have any competition. I never seemed to have a lot of friends, perhaps because adult things like reading were more interesting to me than childhood things like playing cops'n'robbers. So I had a lot of spare time, and reading fit right in.
Oddly enough I have never been able to understand most "great" literature, such as Faulkner or García Márquez. I spent a week trying to get through the first page of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain in college and gave up in despair. That's Mrs. Fraggle's specialty, she's got an M.A. in English Literature and has read The Magic Mountain more than once. She's managed to find a couple of books by great authors that were a little more accessible than average, and I loved them. One was Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King, which became one of my all-time favorite books.
I read plenty of non-fiction, although more articles than books. For fiction I usually stick to fantasy and sci-fi, and I often find myself enthralled by books that are aimed at younger readers, such as those by Robin McKinley, Brian Jacques and Diana Pharaoh Francis... and of course J. K. Rowling.
I didn't have to "learn to enjoy reading," it was naturally enjoyable. There wasn't very much on TV in 1951, so books didn't have any competition. I never seemed to have a lot of friends, perhaps because adult things like reading were more interesting to me than childhood things like playing cops'n'robbers. So I had a lot of spare time, and reading fit right in.
Oddly enough I have never been able to understand most "great" literature, such as Faulkner or García Márquez. I spent a week trying to get through the first page of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain in college and gave up in despair. That's Mrs. Fraggle's specialty, she's got an M.A. in English Literature and has read The Magic Mountain more than once. She's managed to find a couple of books by great authors that were a little more accessible than average, and I loved them. One was Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King, which became one of my all-time favorite books.
I read plenty of non-fiction, although more articles than books. For fiction I usually stick to fantasy and sci-fi, and I often find myself enthralled by books that are aimed at younger readers, such as those by Robin McKinley, Brian Jacques and Diana Pharaoh Francis... and of course J. K. Rowling.
May I suggest that you are one of the eternally young at heart? I mean that in the most complimentary manner.
The fiction that is directed at youth very often enjoys more latitude in the premise of imagination. As the target audience becomes more mature, the impossible gets pared away as the presumed parameters of discernment are developing and applied.
The creativity of the unconditioned mind of youth gradually becomes shaped toward the purposes of society and we are finally expected to put away our childish thinking and now settle only for the tangible and measurable as we become 'contributing members' to the economic engine.
It pleases me immensely to observe that there are several logical thinkers at this forum who delight in science fiction.
Observable-----------------Reading----------------Conceptual
Perhaps those who enjoy reading recognize in the skill that it is one bridge between the observable and the conceptual.