I am a reader but my family aren't

Ever since I first learnt to read aged 4
I have been an avid reader. I am never without my Kindle.
My 6 DGC are keen readers but not as book mad as I am. Hopefuly they will stay this way as they get older. I run a reading group too so I get to hear other people's views of the books. I'd be lost without my Kindle. I can read long into the night without disturbing my husband. He prefers to listen to book tapes.

I always have 2 books on the go. A real one for home and kindle for out and about and I get through a good few each year.

DH always has one on the go but probably the same one all year.

2 if my DDs are avid readers the third just an occasional reader.

I have 7 bookcases filled with books and thank goodness I have because I have been rereading them during the pandemic. Usually read two/ three a week plus magazines. I also craft sew and make cards. All this and p/t childminding my grandchildren keep me sane.

i read about 5 books a week, all from kindle as i need large print, years ago when my son was at primary school my husband and i were asked to a meeting and hauled over the coals by a very snooty teacher telling us that if we read books then maybe he would, my husband let her rant and then said, we have books all over the place and my wife goes to the library every week and reads to our son every night, her face was a picture, he is 34 now and still wont read a book.

I was a good reader from age four. I devoured books: they became my 'escape' from listening to my parents fighting!
However, I always had...still do... a habit of not being able to move on in a story if I was presented with a word that I didn't understand. This has never left me... I obviously became an English teacher. Studying the language through books is my favourite thing to do. However,I am another who is finding it difficult to concentrate whilst reading, lately.

Nexus63
We had a similar experience with one of our children. At a parents day we were told that our daughter, then about eleven, was reading rubbish, that she should be reading Jane Austin, or Thomas Hardy. She was never going to be one of life’s prolific readers, so I was just grateful she was reading Jacqueline Wilson.

The best thing anyone can give a child is a love of reading. My mother was an avid reader and passed that on to me. My dad reads but is more inclined to newspapers and the occasional non fiction book. I own literally hundreds of physical books and hundreds of ebooks as well. I loved reading as a child and escaping to another world - at age 12 they had to give me tickets for the adult library as I'd read everything that interested me in the children's library. My husband is dyslexic but still enjoys reading newspapers and, like my Dad, the occasional non fiction book.

My father took me to the library the minute that I was old enough, ( seven in those days ). I read the one book allowed out at a time very quickly, and rushed back to the library,only to be told that I couldn't have another out on the same day. What nonsense! However, I was hooked, and must have been the library's ' best customer '! I was over the moon when I was eventually allowed three books out at a time. There have been very few nights in my life when I haven't read in bed, no matter what time I go there. I spent most weekends and school holidays reading. I'm still a very regular reader, both real books and iBooks.

My DD's both also read a lot, and even DS who has Down's Syndrome reads books - if painstakingly slowly - but he perseveres. DGC aren't avid readers unfortunately. Like many of you, it is hard to understand how some people aren't interested, but we're all different. ( I do think they"re missing out though ).

polomint, I've always read a lot but, let's face it, there wasn't much else to do when at home as a child - so the habit stuck.

My children didn't read so much and some of my grandchildren do read extensively, others don't. I think they're missing out.

I do feel that my attention span and patience have dwindled recently. Also, my eyes get tired and reading in bed is no longer possible - I just fall asleep!

I buy used books on Amazon, but just today, I discovered World of Books, and ordered three, which cost £9.87 including postage. I can see it might become a habit.

Have always been a reader, but the only one in my family. My mother was poorly educated and struggled with reading, my father was was such a busy man who saw sitting with a book as an indulgence. However they encouraged us and we had a bookshelf provided, and books purchased for us. I loved those books, and sitting on the floor of the dining room as the sun came in! Fond memories. I think Black Beauty was my favourite.

Once again, I am the only reader in my family. DH will read very rarely, and the children didn't often read for entertainment, only required reading for school. A few popular series grabbed their attention, like Harry Potter. My DD now has developed a love of reading which makes me happy and she is very good with reading to the Gchildren.

I don't tend to keep books, but have a small rotating pile that I pass along, and a small collection of books for the visiting GC. Wonky Donkey, anyone?

I was such a bookworm loved reading, would read under the blankets night and morning, as an only child often ate alone and would have a book on the table, always took my book to the loo with me, worked for some years in a library Now in the last few years have lost my concentration, eyes aren’t good either it’s just become such hard work, I keep trying but only manage a few pages then it’s back on the shelf
My two daughters were readers but not so much now, my son I could never get into reading, I have seven grandkids who all had loads of books as children but now NONE are readers

I read every day. I have read 26 books so far this year

I love reading and much prefer to hold a book in my hand than a Kindle. I have a large selection of books at home and always take a stack of books away on holiday (if not flying!!).
My children were never great readers but in the past year my DD (almost 30) has become an avid reader, which makes my heart sing

Soos
I’m with you there, a kindle would never work for me, I love reading but I also love books, I love having bookshelves full of books all over the house, and I love bookshops. I can see some advantages, but definitely not for me.

My house is full of books-I really ought to get rid of some but I like to reread them.
I also read on my Kindle, and I always have a book downloaded on my iPhone in case I have to wait somewhere unexpectedly. It syncs with my Kindle so I don’t have to remember which page I’m on.

I grew up with lots of books and frequented the library. The four walls of the sitting room are covered with bookshelves. But my adult children dont read that much, so far as I know. My dil is a writer and we discuss books and swap them, so I imagine something was transferred from my children's home life to their adult choices!
Or it could just be luck

I have been tempted by a £17.50 huge mystery box of books on EBay. Apparently they are in varying states from Acceptable to Very Good. I haven’t succumbed yet ...

Books v Kindle are not an either/or, it is horses for courses.

I carry my Kindle in my handbag, it is small and light. I can read it standing on a crowded train, standing on the platform waiting for a train, in any of the endless queues one gets stuck in these days, I can read it in the dark in bed so that I do not disturb DH.

I can remember being in hospital, before KIndles. went in for a day, stayed 3. I took 2 books with me, but they were quickly read, then it was a question of waiting for DH to bring more, worrying he would bring the right one. If only KIndles had existed.

The biggest disadvantage of Kindles is they are only good for novels, or similar texts. They are useless for any book where you might want to leaf back and forward, where there are pictures, maps, graphs, tables, that need to be referred to, while you read, which is why there is a book by my bed, several in the living room and another on the Kitchen table. and three heaps of books awaiting my attention.

My parents imbued me with a love of books, we had loads in the house, lots of history books in particular, history was my father's passion. I think I absorbed a lot sometimes, just flicking through them when I was quite young and possibly through osmosis seeing a time line pan out, I also liked looking at atlases which is something my grand daughter likes too. My mother took us to the library most weeks, I loved the thrill of choosing books. I adored getting brand new ones at birthdays and Christmas.

I think all that was hard wired into me, I've always read and had a book on the go from a very early age, but there was little in the way of entertainment when my generation was growing up so books assumed more importance than they do with the children of today. Bookshops are definitely my happy place, much more so than say clothes shops which I do in short bursts, but if I spend too long in them I'm bored. I could be locked in for the night in Waterstones or even better Daunts in Marylebone and be quite happy. I'm missing the browsing experience at the moment. I have to have regular sort outs and trips to charity shops with books I've read, also my husband devours crime and gets through a book every couple of days, or so it seems We've bought a lot during lock down. If I really love a book I wont part with it, so my bookshelves are creaking somewhat. Maybe a Kindle would be the answer, but I love the feel of a new book it's something special to me.

As for my children, one is an avid reader, my other one doesn't read hardly ever now. Probably the last books he read with any enthusiasm were the Harry Potters. I think my 10 year old grand daughter does always have a book on the go, usually the latest David Walliams or something like that and my younger grand child aged 6 is not too enthusiastic apart from a few favourites like "Stick Man" which he couldn't get enough of a couple of years ago, but they are children of their time and often all manner of screens have more of a draw for them. I'm sad about that, but I am not the main influencer in their lives, but they often like going through many of the children's books I've kept when they stay at ours.

I never saw either of my parents reading a book of any description, but once at school I devoured anything that I could get my hands on book wise. I was given a gift of Treasure Island to read by my primary school teacher and remember trying to read it from the light of the street lamp outside my bedroom window when my parents thought I was sleeping! I know we don't have too many old fashioned book shops nowadays, but if in the past I've been on holiday and stumbled across one, I've loved to go in first to smell those lovely paperbacks and then to buy one.

I read 3 books a week on my kindle. I only have 2 actual books in the house, both antique that I have never read.

Cornishpasty Is there a reason why you have so few books? Usually when someone makes a statement like yours they either get all their books from the library or are dyslexic or do not read for some other good reason.

M0nica my sister, an avid reader (husband is not) has very few books in the house because they look untidy! ?
She describes her Kindle as the most wonderful present she’s ever been given!