College Students! discussion

I know for most of us there was a moment while reading a book that we became utterly addicted. What book(s) hooked you into reading?

For me, I think the books that really hooked me into reading were Little House on the Prairie, Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, and The Babysitter's Club.

This is why I don't care what people are reading as long as it makes them read because I think eventually some people expand their book interests. All the books that I liked when I was younger were highly entertaining or adventurous. I remember thinking about what it would be like to be living on the prairie or living like those Boxcar children. I used to imagine different scenarios like that. And I think that I liked those books because the main characters were all either around my age or a little older and I looked up to them.

My mom read the Little House series to me when I was about six, I'm pretty sure that's where my love of reading started. My interest in history/historical fiction probably started there too. I like how I still can comfortably read those books today.
Later on, I devoured all The Babysitter's Club books, I was seriously obsessed. I actually came across an old one a few months ago but couldn't even finish the book, it was so ridiculous!
I wish I had branched out more when I was younger, but at least I was reading something, which so many children don't do anymore! Makes me sad.

I loved the Dear America diaries, the Little House books, Goosebumps and The Boxcar children. I always wished I could have solved mysteries like the Boxcar kids!

I also liked Island of the Blue Dolphins. I read the Babysitter's Little Sister books and then when I was a little older I started reading the Babysitter's Club. Oh, and I loved the Magic School Bus!

Did anyone else get the Scholastic book orders in elementary school? I loved those. My parents would always say I wanted too many books (I think I'd circle like half the catalogue!)

I used to love getting those Scholastic book orders! I used to circle half of them too! haha.


Did alot of you have parents that read to you? I think that can make a big difference too in how you get turned on to reading.

I loved the Ramona books, I also read Boxcar Children, Little House, Goosebumps and lots more.

I LOVED Scholastic orders! I still get to order from them occasionally, my friend is in a teaching program and gets Scholastic orders all the time, so if I see something in the catalogue that I want I tell her to order it for me. Lol

My Dad read to me when I was little. What's interesting is that he didn't really like reading, he still doesn't. My mom is the one that reads all the time, but she never really had any interest in reading outloud. My Dad read to me a lot, but the books that stand out in my memory are James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I'd also love to know from someone who wasn't a reader as a child what books got them into reading as a young adult.

For example, my best friend's husband never was a reader but she recently got him into reading by reading books by John Grisham, Dan Brown, etc.

Well my cousin was 21 before she ever read a book all the way through. She started the Harry Potter series and didn't get past the first couple of chapters. She finally read the Twilight Saga, and has read a couple of books since then, including The Hunger Games.

I loved the American Girl series when I was younger. I also read the Boxcar Children books. But I think it was the AG books. They did a really good job at creating characters that little girls could relate to and aspire to be.

And my dad would read to me each night before bed. While he wouldn't do voices for all of the characters, he interacted with the text, which made it fun to listen to. I think I'd credit my dad with fostering my love of reading as much as I'd credit any books I read.

I honestly don't remember what started me reading. I don't really remember a time before reading. :)

My whole family read a lot, except my younger sister. She recently started because a girl from her work was obsessed by Twilight, so she started with those and probably has read at least a book a week since then, so it gave her the bug.

She reads the lighter Young Adult books and some of the romance type adult books. I won the Something Borrowed from the giveaways awhile back and she read it then had to get all other books written by the same person.

That is usually how she "picks". If she likes something by an author, she figures she will enjoy them all. She tried The Host and only made it about 30 pages or so. She had nightmares. :)

I'm not sure what made me a reading maniac, but the series' that kept me most interested were ones you guys already mentioned- Babysitter's Club, Little House, American Girl. As I got older I was also hooked on the Fear Street books. My mom & my grandparents read to me a lot as a kid. I remember refusing to sleep until someone would read me The Velveteen Rabbit or Goodnight Moon. My mom was in the PTO of my elementary school and for some reason was able to get the old literature text books. She would bring those home for me and I would read an entire textbook full of short stories over the summers.
Scholastic book orders were so exciting. I circled most of the books and then my mom would make me narrow it down to just a few books per order. Did you guys ever have the scholastic book fairs at your school?

I actually didn't read much from 7th grade- high school except for required school reading and the occasional leisure reading. Harry Potter and The Perks of Being A Wallflower got me back into it.

They still have the book fairs here, and the local elementary schools usually post them on their marquee's so anyone can go. My sister is a helper at her kids school and she was invited last year to a special book sale for teachers only. I gave her a huge list, but she went the last day and was only able to get 3 books from it. Hopefully this year I will be able to go with her.

Heather wrote: "I'm not sure what made me a reading maniac, but the series' that kept me most interested were ones you guys already mentioned- Babysitter's Club, Little House, American Girl. As I got older I was a..."

I went through a little reading slump through that time period too! I don't know why!

That's so funny, I was randomly thinking about Scholastic book orders from my elementary school days a couple days ago and mentioned it to my bf, and now I'm reading it here! But yes, I loved those! And the book fairs that came to the school's library. I'd save up my lunch money to buy something.

I was jealous of my childhood friend, who seemed to have all kinds of little books in her room which she would read or her mom read some to her. And sometimes, at sleepovers, I would get to listen to her mom read as it was their bedtime tradition.

I did enjoy Goosebumps books, though, by R.L. Stine. I wish I was introduced to more books when I was younger. Also The Giver and I read a book or two from the A-List series. I remember liking a book called Of Two Minds.

But I really got into reading at the end of high school, beginning of university. I really loved Lullabies for Little Criminals: A Novel.

I also had an amazing first grade teacher. She loved reading and taught us how to love it. She was one of the best teachers at the school I went to. I actually still talk to her occasionally, she lives in southern Utah (about 6 hours away from where I live)but we're friends on facebook. :)

My mom read to me when I was really little (hard-core English teachers will do that) and I remember loving the HANK THE COWDOG series when I was like really little, and also (no surprise) AMELIA BEDILIA - I had to read the books to figure out who this "Amelia Bedilia" person was and why everyone kept calling me by her name

Amelia Bedilia! I'd forgotten about those, I loved that series!

What about Madeline (I think that was what they were called) All I remember is the girls walked in two lines everywhere. :)

I've pretty much been reading nonstop since I learned how to read...according to my mom, in preschool, all of my teachers thought I had ADD, but then in kindergarten I learned how to read and could spend hours reading a book, even though I could hardly otherwise stay in my chair. (I wish it were that way now...I have to be reading a really really addicting book to be able to spend hours reading it...I'm so distractable.) In elementary school I do recall reading this one series with my friend...between the two of us, we had nearly all the books. But I don't remember what it was. I also read most of the Magic Tree House books. My favorite book when I was younger was The Two Princesses of Bamarre, by Gail Carson Levine, but I probably didn't read that until 3rd or 4th grade.

Kayla wrote: "Its kinda funny but the books that got me into really reading were the Goosebumps series. I loved scary stories and these were great because they weren't really that scary but really got me excited..."

I was OBSESSED with the Goosebumps book. Those definitely kept me reading and then when I got a little bit older I devoured all the rest of RL Stine's books.

I loved reading up until I was about 13....then I kind of stopped, mainly because I didn't like YA books, but wasn't old enough for other fiction novels. I went through about a four year slump where I never read.
My mom was an editor at a publishing company in LA, so she brought home tons and tons of books for us :)

I really don't know why I enjoy reading so much... I know my dad used to read to me when I was little... but I don't think that's all that got me into reading. When I was younger, my mom and I would go to the library and I would look in the children's section for every book about whales I could find. Whales are my favourite animal. I also loved the American Girl books... then Dear America and the Royal Diaries... I liked the Baby Sitter's Club a little... when I was a bit older, I loved Animorphs... I don't know, I've been reading as long as I can remember, so it's hard to pinpoint a time.

<3

I loved Dear America!!
Those were so good, and really educational too :P

I used to love those Scholastic book orders. I always spent so much money at my school book fairs. =D

I remember reading the Little House and Goosebumps books when I was a kid, but I think the books that really got me going were The Outsiders, The Giver and the other books I read when I was in 8th grade. My 8th grade teacher was great about inspiring me to read. =)

When I was first taught the alphabet in kindergarten, I spent hours in my room pouring over the Little Critters series and Berenstein Bears teaching myself to read.

The first books I can really remember getting into (that weren't picture books) were the Sweet Valley Twin series. After I finished all of those I went on to Sweet Valley High and then Sweet Vally University. I got to know Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield really well in elementary school. LOL

I feel like I never really had a teacher that inspired me to read. That's awesome that you had a teacher like that, Ralph.

Kayla--I was all about Sweet Valley too. I felt really cool reading them haha. I loved Elizabeth and Jessica!

I honestly cant say. I had a nanny when I was little who did a lot for me include teach me to read at a very young age. I was confined to a wheelchair so reading was pretty much the only thing I could do.
She tells me stories about me picking out letters before I could even really put them in words.
I love words- no particular book ever did that but I think my love of reading is deeper than the pages of a particular story. :)

Roald Dahl! Loved Matilda! Kinda makes me want to re-read it.

Oh my goodness, where to start? I also loved the Scholastic book club orders! I used to wait and wait until they finally came in. I miss those.

Bernstein Bears, Beatrix Potter books, Sweet Valley (when I got older), Babysitters Club (and the Little Sister series), Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, American Girl, Magic Attic Club...AH! So many memories! I actually too Little House on the Prairie out of the library a few months ago. It's still as awesome as I remember.

Anna wrote: "Matilda is brilliant! The film isn't bad either! Ye all seem to have read American Girl, I've never heard of it, I'll have to check it out. "

I grew up watching the movie Matilda but I had never read the book until just recently. It was my first Roald Dahl book and I really enjoyed it. Now I want to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was another movie I grew up on and loved.

The Babysitters Club series was what got me reading as well as a Nancy Drew phase.

Jen - we also got the Scholastic book orders at my school and I think I must have circled half the catalogue too! My parents would let me get one book from each catalogue but it must have taken me at least a day to choose which book!

Jess wrote: "Oh my goodness, where to start? I also loved the Scholastic book club orders! I used to wait and wait until they finally came in. I miss those.

Bernstein Bears, Beatrix Potter books, Sweet Valley ..."

Yes! Bernstein Bears were definitely a huge part of my childhood reading experience. I had a lot of them on tape and would read along. I also remember my parents reading them to me and my brothers a lot.

My first job got me into reading. I was the child who wanted to read but it was really difficult to read. I had to beg my parents to take me to the library. I was behind in English and writing as a kid. I have a huge math and science brain. I loathed reading as a child all the way through high school. So there are two thing sthat got me into reading. The first was becoming a shelver at my local library. I worked after school and shelved the books. Looking at the covers and realizing that there were books out there other than the horrid ones you had to read for school. So I started picking some up. Second was my love for Star Trek Voyager. Since I loved it so much and the series was close to ending I started picking up the books. There are over 30 so it kept me busy reading.

Over 9 year of working at the library I slowly started to open my genre of reading. Starting with Sci-Fi of course and then getting into fantasy and general lit (Which I NEVER would have guessed my self to read ever)

Now I am playing catch up for all the years I never read and am reading a lot of classic books. I’ll tell you I missed a lot in my life by not reading I really regret it. Reading is still hard for me especially with hard writing styles. My goal is to read the lord of the rings which I have started about 5-7 times and can’t get through.

Melissa that is so awesome! I feel like I've missed out too, in a way, because I went through this reading slump in middle school and high school and I feel like I missed so much!

When I was in elementary school, all I read were Sweet Valley books. Then when I was in middle school my mom got me into romance novels and that was pretty much all I read for the next couple of years. I didn't start reading general fiction until the ninth grade.

I missed out on all the good young adult novels because of that. I feel like I should read them all now to make up for it, even though I'm past the recommended age group.

I really really loved books as a kid. I started on "chapter books" at age 5, with Socks by Beverly Cleary. I read pretty much everything mentioned above.
When I was 13, I was mostly turned off by reading... honestly, I blame my school with not seizing on this age group well enough to introduce us to books we could relate to. I picked up The Catcher in the Rye on my own at 15, and loved that, and tried to pursue more of his work.
I started college at 16 and took a lot of reading courses, so I got into John Keats, Don DeLillo, etc. Then I just pretty much read everything in sight. :)

Kayla wrote: "When I was in elementary school, all I read were Sweet Valley books. Then when I was in middle school my mom got me into romance novels and that was pretty much all I read for the next couple of y..."

There is nothing bad about reading YA. I read YA all the time, they are often better in some genres than adult, mainly in the Sci-fi and fantasy area. Go for it, I always say who care what I am reading, they probably dont read so they have nothing to judge!

Working in the YA and JF area at the library there is so many wonderful books that are avaiable, the problem is finding the time to read them all!

What book got me into reading??? I always had a love of books, but I can remember the moment that I became enamored. I was six, it was a Chronicles of Narnia boxset. I read them on a cross-country drive in the backseat of my parents van. They were the first chapter books I read. I remember being amazed that words could make such a spectacularly real place like Narnia :). After that, I never looked back. I don't think my parents pocketbook has recovered, yet.

Ahh Caitlin! I'm right there with you! I loved those books!!

I've pretty much loved to read since I was a kid. I can remember reading religious books and children's books, but I can't say that there was one book or one moment in which I knew I would love books the rest of my life. I definitely read a lot of Encyclopedia Brown...

My grandfather used to read me stories when I was little. Most stories were fairy tales, or short stories. I was born in Romania, so some of the stories he read to me were written by Romanian authors. I do know that he did read stories from The Brothers Grim.

I loved the stories, and I really wanted to learn to read so that I could read the stories whenever I wanted to. I don't really remember what books really got me into reading, I just know I have been passionate about it since I was young.

When I moved to Canada in grade 3, I was really shy, and did not make a lot of friends for a long time (years). So I spent a lot of time reading, and forgetting about everything. I do remember having a big Agatha Christie phase around Grade 8. I loved the mysteries, and no matter how correct I thought I was at guessing the real murderer, I could never figure it out.

Snickers, no cartoons but Young and the Restless was okay? That is funny.

Luckily, my neices and nephews love books. Well, except the one boy that is eight. He would rather have his DS but is starting to come around some now that he can read books about things he is interested in.

The younger kids in my family all read. Devon is 9 and reads all the time, unfortunately his older sister loves to read but refuses to do so most of the time because "it's dumb".

first book i read that was not one of those beginner readers books. s i put it my first real book that made me love reading was goosebumps:phantom of the auditoriam(sorry bad speller)

My dad read me all the Roald Dahl books when i was little, thats what sparked me into loving books. Then i started reading The Famous Five books by myself and Goosebumps, it all really started from there, my earliest memory of reading on my own is around the age of 7.

I learned to read when I was 2, and always read a lot. I guess that I don't have a book that really got me into reading, since I was always a bibliophile.
I'm gonna go with Hank the Cowdog because that's the one series I read constantly when I was little.

I'm not sure I can narrow it down to one specific book or series, because I feel like I've been reading forever! My mom and grandfather have always been big readers so I think being around them and their books just got me interested. I'm trying to think as far back as I can but I can't! I've just always loved reading, I remember being really young and signing out tons of books from the library all the time.

I know when I was younger I really liked the Babysitters Club, and the Dear America series, and Goosebumps of course, and Judy Blume books.. but I can place those books with 2nd-3rd grade and I know I was interested in reading before that.

I don't exactly remember what I was reading, but my mom told me when I was younger I would carry a bag of books around and just look at the pictures and make up stories. But in elementary school I remember doing the summer book challenges at the library and wining stuff, so that really got me into reading. I read mostly like Nancy Drew and The Babysitter's Club.

I remember the Scholastic catalogs and I went through and circled like almost everything and I would have a ton of books and I would just sit there and read them right when they came in.

But once I really got heavily into reading was when I found my mom's V.C. Andrews books and I couldn't stop reading them, I read all her books before I discovered any other author and then later on I re read them. So I guess I have my mom to thank for getting me books at such a young age and continued to get them for me!

I don't remember what book got me into reading or when I started. My dad and his siblings love to read so we have a lot of books at home. I know I've been reading novels (Sidney Sheldon) since grade school but I don't know the first one I read. My parents also tell me that when I was in kindergarten, I would read my books until I memorized them so when dad would scold us for not reading, I would just recite them without having to look at my books. X)

Ooh Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl. I started off with the Noddy books and other fairytales by Enid Blyton, and her works, along with Dahl's, continued to be a staple throughout much of my childhood. I guess I started reading at around 5. There's still nothing I enjoy more :)
And yes, we also got the Scholastic catalogues. I remember buying almost all the books on it once.

Here is an idea! Scholastic should do Junior High/Middle School, High School and College editions of their book catalogs! It may not be easy on the pocketbook but it would be fun!