Why do we love reading? Why do you love reading? Why do I love reading? Let me count the ways.
Oh wait, I asked my newsletter readers to do that for me, and have they ever been counting up the reasons and sharing them. That’s great. I’ve loved every response I’ve received. Here’s one that just grabbed me as such a great reason to love reading.
“I’m never lonely because I always have friends in a book!” (Joan, a newsletter reader)
We can’t always be out with friends. Some people don’t have family living with them. Many people live alone, but as Joan says, books can bring a person friends and push away any feelings of loneliness. Plus, an unending supply of fictional friends are out there waiting for their turn at entertaining you by sharing their stories.
Many of the several hundred answers I’ve gotten share similar reasons for loving to read.
1. To go on adventures they wouldn’t be able to undertake in real life.
2. To relax and be entertained.
3. To “visit” places far away or near, in the past or the future.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
4. To be inspired and learn something.
Linda G. describes her love of reading this way. “What I love about reading is that it will take me places that I have never been. I can just picture them and the people in my mind! A getaway from the stresses of every day and the problems that come from it!”
Many of the responders mentioned how they love to escape the problems of the day by immersing themselves in a story. For a while, you can take a little vacation from the concerns that might be swirling around you all day.
Then there are the characters that you meet. Personally, I want to like the main characters, and if I can’t, for whatever reason, I don’t enjoy the book very much.
“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” – Malorie Blackman
If I’m going to walk in someone else’s shoes, I don’t want the fit to be terrible and give my reading feet blisters. I want to travel their story road with them while hoping everything turns out in a good way. I do like happy endings or at very least hopeful endings.
Julie has some thoughts about the love of reading and the characters she likes to meet in the stories she reads.
“The thing I love about reading is with historical fiction novels, they can take you back in time and experience through the writer’s words, what you can never do otherwise. I love reading about courageous, inspiring, characters that leave you wanting to be the best you can be. I also feel that the more you read, the better you can write.”
Reading is important in making a writer better. The two best words of advice to any beginning writer are read and write! Even now, all these years later since I first cracked open my first book and followed the author’s words to take me into their fictional world, I still need to read to keep the use of words active in my mind . That way when I again have my fingers on my keyboard ready to share my own stories, the words will be familiar friends I can use to make my characters come to life and share their stories.
“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” (Garrison Keillor)
The rush to enter my newsletter giveaway has slowed down. I’m working my way through answering each message I’ve received from readers. That’s always fun because I love to hear your thoughts and how things are going for you. I still have a few dozen to go. So, if you sent a message and haven’t heard from me, I hope to get everyone answered in the next couple of days.
How old were you when you discovered the love of reading?
Comments 30
I have been told that from the time I was trying to walk I would find either paper or a book and hold which makes me smile. I really don’t know when I actually started reading and understanding. However, I have been reading for a long, long time and so enjoy for many reasons.
Author
That’s a great thing to know, Loretta, that you had a feeling for books at a very young age. Glad the love of reading stuck with you for as you say, a long time, and that you will have many more years to enjoy reading.
I’ve loved reading ever since I learned to read. So age 5 or 6, I guess. My youngest daughter taught herself to read at age 4. Then she taught her twin brother to read. They’re both now adults who love reading.
Author
That’s amazing that your daughter taught herself to read, Lee, and even more fun that she taught her twin brother to do the same. Glad they still love reading.
I think in the first grade when I started learning to read (no kindergarten or preschool then). I enjoyed the Dick and Jane books. As I got older the enjoyment only increased with the better reader I became.
Author
I can’t remember enjoying the Dick and Jane books, but I was glad to learn to read, Connie. And yes, getting to read more advanced books meant a lot.
Ann, I love all your books and always look forward to the next one.
I truly became an avid book reader when I retired from my job as Exec. Secretary/Admin. Assistant at age 60. I am now 89 and LOVE reading books, as does my husband. We exchange books that we have gotten from the Loveland , Colorado Public Library and enjoy them immensely. Your books are at the top of our list; we always have our name on the Waiting List, Ann. You are literally a part of our family! Many Thanks for all your hours of creating stories!
Author
It’s so good to know that you can get my books from your library in Colorado, Jan. I love libraries and feel I would have never been able to be the writer I am without having a library where I could find books and do research. A writer needs to do a lot of reading to embed all those words and potential scenes in her head. Fun that you and your husband enjoy some of the same books and I’m really happy that my books are some that you’ve enjoyed. Thank you for your kind words.
I can’t pinpoint a specific age when I discovered my love for reading, because it feels like it’s always been there. Reading has always felt cozy and warm to me—fun, exciting, and comforting—ever since my earliest memories of holding a book.
I never remember not reading.
I remember my favorite spot at the bottom of the stairs in a cozy corner away from the noise of siblings in other parts of the house and sounds of mom bustling around in the kitchen.
Reading on the couch, on my bed, on the swing, on the floor were other places I enjoyed reading.
My love of reading and my desire to write has led me to publish a devotional in an Advent Collection Book this past year.
I give books away especially to my grandchildren and enjoy reading to them. Hopefully my joy of reading will rub off on all my grandchildren and some of them will become writers someday.
Author
Congratulations on your devotional book, Janet. That’s great. I enjoyed reading about all the places you found to read. When I was a kid I hid away in my upstairs room to read and write. Well, at least I did when it was warm enough. In the winter I did sit by the stove downstairs or on the steps since the heat would rise up there so it was sort of warm. When I read your places where you read, I thought of the Dr. Zeus book about eating green eggs and ham. Yours could be I will read my stories on a couch. On a bed. On a swing and anywhere. Yes, I would Sam I Am, I would read my books anywhere.
I give my grandchildren books too. I’m happy that so many of them like to read.
I love your reference to Dr Seuss and my reading places❤️ So fun!
I’ve loved reading for years!! I used to make Mom and Daddy read to me, but I was reading on my own at 4, and had my own library card. In first grade, I had to go to the class next door to mine for reading, as I was ahead of the ones my age. I think I did that until I was in third grade, and my classmates caught up to me.
Author
So many young readers, Trudy. I guess I was way behind since I don’t think I learned to read when I started school. But words were magic for me and I loved putting them together to make my own stories.
I can’t remember when I didn’t love to read. It seems though the Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys mysteries got me really hooked.
Author
I certainly got hooked on those Hardy Boy mysteries. I wanted to be a Hardy Girl and solve my own mystery and that’s when I started writing my own mystery starring me and my sidekicks, my sister and my cousin. Of course, I was the brains. LOL
I absolutely agree with you, Ann, and I’m hoping to discover a New Book in the near future.
Admiringly,
“Calamity ” Jan in Loveland CO 😉
I was about six when I discovered my love a reading. You see i was born with cerebral palsy and as a result I was never really able to play (more like keep up) with the other kids as they played. So books were my way (and still are) of being like everyone else.
Author
I’m glad you found a way to have joy as a kid and to perhaps share about the stories you read with the other kids, Deborah. Blessings come in many ways and certainly reading is a blessing to embrace. It’s one my character in my coming release, A Chance for Kallie Mae, wants to have.
When I was in the first grade, I had measles. I had to stay isolated from the rest of the family, except mom!! Every afternoon she would read books to me. I could get lost in the stories and forget about the itchy misery of measles!! She gave me the joy of listening to and reading books!! Forever grateful!
Author
Aren’t moms the best, Bonnie? Good that she was able to help you through feeling so miserable by giving you the joy of stories.
I don’t remember actually learning to read as I started at a very early age. My grandma lived with us and read to me constantly. My parents made sure I always had plenty of books. I was an only child (until I was 13), so I had plenty of “friends” within the pages of them. I remember reading the Bobsey Twins series, Nancy Drew, etc. And, to this very day, opening the first page of a book brings me joy, wondering what adventure I’m fixing to go on. I’ll be forever grateful for the love of reading that was instilled in me as a very young child!
Author
I know that feeling of opening a book you have wanted to read or just picked to read, Judi, and looking forward to the story that is going to live out in your imagination. What a pleasure reading is.
I liked the Hardy Boy mysteries the best when I was a kid. In fact those books were the inspiration for me to first take up pen to write a story. I wanted to solve a mystery the way they did. Fictional mysteries are safer than real ones. Not that much mysterious happened out on the farm where I grew up.
The reason for reading is endless.
Author
I think you may have cornered the truth there, Sharon. I’m grateful for my ability to read and for having some stacks of books waiting to be read.
I can’t really remember when I started to love reading as I am approaching 85 real soon but I know I have been reading for years. Can’t go to sleep at night till after I read awhile, sometimes to be woken up with the book falling on me. My mom and dad were also advit readers and all my children won awards at school for being the top readers. A few years back I started a little book to keep track of the books I read with the author’s name, and there are quite a few wrote in it. Our church has an awesome library so never run out of good Christian books to read and of course I have read many of yours and look forward to reading many more. Blessings from Canada. Marjorie
Author
Great that you always have a way to discover new books in your church’s library, Marjorie. I don’t know that I could put a date on my beginning love of books. I think it must go back to times when I can’t remember. But reading has always been a joy. There have been times when I was too busy to read as much as I wanted. Those times are still here. I need an extra hour a day or why not two to read as much as I’d like.
My maternal grandparents were avid readers. My mom and dad liked to read although farm life and work kept them too busy to read as much as they might have liked. Writing keeps me from reading for pleasure as much as I’d like, but I also want to do that writing.
Always great to hear from Canada, Marjorie.
I was very young, probably about 3 or 4 years old when my grandmother taught me the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. Soon afterwards she taught me how to put those sounds together. I remember sailing through the Dick & Jane books in our little pre-K class. (It wasn’t an actual class like kindergarten, but a class that the kindergarten teacher offered during the summer before 1st grade.) I lived in a very small town where the local elementary school only had four classrooms. So I’m sure smaller classes were an extra advantage for learning too. I can still remember getting quite upset when my teacher Mrs Margaret wouldn’t call on me to read out loud during class. But after reading time, she took me down the hall to pick out books to read in the 3rd grade classroom. Ohh joy joy! I was truly blessed to have a caring grandmother and a splendid and loving 1st grade teacher that encouraged reading.
My grandmother’s favorite saying was, “you can’t be bored as long as there’s books to be read.” (My grandkids already know that’s my answer to their boredom!) Another one was, “if you want to find an answer to anything, ask a librarian.” So, I read for information almost as much as I read for fun, for escaping my troubles and for going on adventures. 🙂
Author
Great thoughts and comments about your love of reading, Lavon. I wasn’t a precocious reader like you. I didn’t learn to read until school age, but I’ve gathered words and loved reading ever since. It’s good that your teacher realized you needed to get some advancement in your reading choices. I always thought they could have surely come up with more interesting stories than the Dick and Jane ones, although I did like Spot. Of course, I did. 🙂
Your grandmother’s saying about not being bored as long as you could lay your hands on a book is a good one too. Thank heavens, my mother took me to the library when I was a kid so I’d have books to read. And I certainly used the library plenty when I wrote my first books. Use it a little different now with the ability to go online hunting for resource material.
Most of my grandkids are avid readers. Others not as much. More influenced by digital entertainment. But I have hope they will someday appreciate books and stories.
I was 9 or 10 when I discovered I Loved to read and I was hooked I love reading and feeling I am in the place where the story is taking place!
Author
Living a story you’re reading with the character is the most fun when reading, Sarah. I try to write characters like that in my stories. When I met people who tell me they “used” to read or never read fiction or don’t have time to read, I think of all they are missing. Glad we aren’t missing that.