Indoctrination
When growing up did your family share your love of books? If so, did one person get you into reading? And, do you have any family-oriented memories with books and reading? (Family trips to bookstore, reading the same book as a sibling or parent, etc.)
My mother has always read a lot, and I suppose I inherited the love from her. She was an only child, with parents who were not terribly warm and affectionate. I think she lost herself in books. I always loved to read--it was the highlight of my first grade year when it hit me that I knew what those marks on the page were without thinking about it!
And I can remember looking at a page of print and trying to make it go back into just scratches on a page, and I couldn't. Literacy was here to stay. What a funny thing to remember!
I read my mother's Nancy Drew books--those written in the forties, where Nancy had "plump friend Bess" (and that was considered OK), and a sporty blue roadster. Oh, how I wanted to be her! I also own my mother's copy of the Emily Post Etiquette book from back in the day. So, if any of you want to know how, exactly, to have the headings engraved on the stationery that you use at your country house, I'm your girl.
One of the things I liked best of all about being a homeschool mom was sharing the books that had meant something to me with my son. And my proudest accomplishment is that I raised a young man who loves to read. That was the main reason I jerked him out of school. We were dangerously close (even in the first grade!) to that "Reading isn't cool" thing. And I cannot bear that.
I read out loud to Zman every day at lunch from the time we started homeschooling (2nd grade) until he was in high school. It is a very precious memory to me. When we read the sad parts in The Hobbit or something, I would get choked up. He would take the book from me, read the sad part, then hand the book back for me to continue. What a guy.....
