reading tag

1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?

My mother (a reading teacher) taught me to read when I was 4. Funny though, it was during the '70's when whole language was popular, so I never learned phonics until I started teaching it myself.

2. Did you own any books as a child? If so, what’s the first one that you remember owning? If not, do you recall any of the first titles that you borrowed from the library?

Oh my, I still have laminated copies of some of my favorites: House on Pooh Corner, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Bread and Jam for Francis, Wizard of Oz, Ballet Shoes, Misty of Chincoteague, and Little Black Sambo. I got my first library card at the Portsmouth Public Library, an enormous stone structure that looked more like a town hall than a simple library (these were people who took reading seriously). I would stack my selected tomes up to my chin and check them out before I realized that I had to carry the stack 8 blocks home.

3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?

I really don't recall, since we got books for gifts in our Easter basket, for Christmas gifts, and for birthday presents. No matter what else we lacked, we always had plenty of good books.

4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often?

I think I re-read Gone With the Wind 16 times by high school. In 6th grade, a friend and I decided to memorize the first page for fun. "Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it as caught in her charm as the Tarleton twins were. In her face were too sharply blended the delicate features of her mother, a Coast aristocrat of French descent and the harsh ones of her florid Irish father." Impressed? I can only imagine what I could have learned during that time instead-quantum physics, molecular biology?

5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?

If GWTW is considered adult, that that, but otherwise it might have been Pride and Prejudice. It certainly wasn't Silas Marner from my brief foray in "honors" English class. I literally read more than any other person in the school (teachers included, I'm sure), but dreary old Silas kicked me back down to English for average folks in about 1 month. Yuck.

6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones?

Nope, I read most of the books on the children's floor of that library by methodically searching shelf by shelf for anything interesting. My goal was to read every children's book of merit there and I likely did. I did read much twaddle as well which I won't expose my children to, such as all the Sweet Valley High books. I recall getting in big trouble with my math teacher in 6th grade for hiding one of those paperbacks behind my textbook and reading all through class. (no wonder I failed college Calculus the first time around)

If you read this, tag, you are it!