Who sparked my love of reading?

This is a question that I get asked a lot as a reader and by pretty much anyone. My family, my teachers, my classmates and the list goes on, but it was one that I could never really answer because as far as I am concerned I have always been reading and it wasn’t something that someone introduced me to as such, but something that I just always loved to do. However, I got asked again recently and it got me thinking. Who actually did introduce me to books and reading? Did anyone or did I just pick it up from others around me in general? Why have I never thought about it before? These were all questions that were going through my head, so I decided to sit down and answer them not only for myself but for you guys as well so here we go.

I love reading and that is just a fact; it always has been. From a very young age I was reading. When I started Primary school I could read better than I could talk because I had a very large speech delay in learning to talk. Even now I am awful at talking but I can read and write perfectly fine. This has always been the case and I thought that was just how it was, that everyone was like that, but clearly not. After thinking about it I have pinpointed my love for reading down to 2 things:

Number 1 is my Mum. She is a bookworm just like me and has even more books that I do. She had me reading as soon as I could and even when she wasn’t teaching me to read by myself she would read me a chapter or two from a book every night before bed. These bedtime stories alone left me loving books such as Percy Jackson, Alex Rider and the Kane Chronicles all of which I still think are amazing now. Now that I think about it she had such a massive impact on my love of reading I honestly don’t know how I didn’t notice before, but if it wasn’t for reason number 2 I might still not be in the position I am.

Reason number 2 is, surprisingly, school. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not like school and that I do not agree with the education system even in the slightest, but I have to give them this one tiny bit of credit just this once. During Primary school we had reading diaries and it was part of our homework to go home and read aloud to our parents every night, so that they could sign our little paper diaries to say we had been reading. I have always done my homework and even use to enjoy it because I could do it in my own time, so these reading diaries were the best thing ever for me. They encouraged me to read and essentially gave me an excuse to read every day because it was part of my homework. Of course the reading got done before my Maths and English though.

So to round it all up the answer to the question “Who sparked my love of reading?” is my Mum. She got me started and has continued to suggest new books to me. Now I am older we suggest books to each other and can fangirl together over the books we have both read. Primary school helped me along the way by giving me excuses to read, but the answer is primarily my Mum and I am so grateful that she loves books so much and has passed that down to me. I would love to know who sparked your love of reading, so leave a comment because I would be really interested to see the different origins of fellow bookworms.

Goodbye for now!

Over and Out