I loved to read because it was like being transported into the story, to be able to lose myself in the drama being unfolded. As far as writing myself, I found that I had an imagination and wanted to create my own characters. Over time I started to write these stories down. Some of my earlier stuff wasn't great, and needed a whole lot of work, but I still wanted to write the ideas down. I guess I wanted to write for the same reason I wrote it was a way to lose myself in another world, only this was a world of my own making where I could control what happened.
As a child in the fourth grade we had to read books and do book reviews. This began my awakening of books has a lot of information time. I marveled at the books we could buy and tell about in class. I began to find that the information was boundless and pictures were fascinating. It stuck and I began to go to the library to borrow books and learn more. I love to read and write! I watch documentaries of interested topics. I love to go by the astronomy section to see what's new. Sometimes I'd see what's in the Tabloids too (LOL). Reading and writing is fun, but I watch a lot of television too!
I loved to read books because I found that I could lose myself in the adventure that was there inside the books. I found that I liked to write myself when I was in High School. My sister was the person who encouraged me to start writing because she felt I had a good imagination. So, I started to write my own stories, not that I have had much success in selling them but that doesn't stop me from the love of writing.
My mom taught me to read when I was four, and I've never stopped. I remember one of the first books I ever read was called "Charlie From Yonder." It had such an impact on me! It was about a little alien ball of light who brightened up an unhappy child's life. After that, I read Alice In Wonderland. As I got older, I would swipe my brother's Silver Age comics, and hole up in a corner for hours until he caught me. LOL I don't think I could live without reading!
Yvonne, we have probably all of Pat McManus's books, including a cool cookbook he wrote with his sister "the troll" Love his stories and his humor. That was such a small town he is from and yet you are the second or third person I've known from there. The only other one I can remember now is a lady who was (I'm assuming she has passed away by now) a natural medical health care provider that my husband and I went to for years. Her husband was good friends with Pat's best friend and he also knew Pat. Then her second husband (her first passed away) was from the same town but I can't recall his name.
I got my love of reading and writing from my mom. All 4 of my kids are also into reading and especially writing although only one does it professionally. One of my granddaughters started writing books before she could write so she drew the pictures and dictated the words to her mom to write down. Now at 21, she has several books and stories written but none published. I've got a book started but I don't know if I'll ever finish it. I tend to set it aside when I get writer's block and then put off getting back to it.
I guess when I really nail it down, it was Zane Gray and Mickey Spillane that made me want to write, but like so many other ideas I held at one time or another, I never quite got it together.
Ever since I was in College I had already had this passion for reading and writing. And now at this point in my life the more I want to read and to write to make my mind active and buzzing!!! I always believe that even we are already old it should not stop us from learning new things and ideas about life.
I guess i got my love for reading from my late Dad. His daily routine was to read the daily news even if it took him to walk several kilometers from home to his friend's house which was also selling newspapers. He read it for free.
When I learned to read in school I liked reading...but when my teacher took me to the school Library and let me pick out my own books, it was then that I fell in love with reading and that love continues today. I love to read almost anything and have passed on my love of reading to my children and many of my grandchildren by buying and reading to them from the time they were born. I have always wanted to write books for my grandchildren with each of them being the main character of the story. A special book just for them. It still just remains a desire in my heart.
I had a an unhappy childhood, very few toys to play with....but my mother was a nurse and she had a leather bound set of Medical encyclopaedias...and in the absence of anything else to play with I would get these books down when she was not around and read them ...I loved the smell of them, and would immerse myself in them for hours..then at around age 9 or 10 I learned about the Public lending library and the first time I entered I thought I'd died and gone to heaven ..it was like a toy store for me...books wherever you looked and all for me to take home and read for up to 3 weeks at a time. I'd always loved writing, I was an A student in English...reading, writing from a very young age was always a joy for me.. I wasn't a quiet studious child, far from it..I;d go outside and play like any child...but my 'indoor toys' were always my books!!
Yes I had a similar childhood Holly, though it was a happy one in my case, my mother was a nurse and the house was full of all sorts of books, from medical to Edgar Allan Poe, I read avidly and being uncensored some of the fiction I was reading gave me nightmares Like you I discovered the public library and read an enormous number of books, and my doing well in English at school was helped by all this reading I presume. I guess as it was before television and long before computers there were no diversions, so it was much easier than nowadays,
I have been reading for like forever. I have been writing since 2006 and a friend got me to start writing on-line in 2008.
My Auntie had a book of illustrated fairy tales I loved. I could read them over and over...the illustrations just gave wings to the stories. I loved the library..it felt peaceful and solid..I mean all those words around me from millions of voices..and when I read a book I took a little part of them with me.
Aha, that's why you look familiar- I've read some of your online material. Can't place which site it was on, though. If it's o.k. to ask, did you write for Associated Content, HubPages, or Bubblews?