Avid Readers: Was it nature or nuture?

In My Humble Opinion
22

Both my parents were avid readers - my mother wrote too for many years. I think she encouraged me more - she taught me to read before my 4th birthday. I visited the library about 4 times a week every week when I was a kid. I adored to read and my mother certainly actively encouraged it - reading was never seen as a slothful activity (as it was in some of my friends houses).

I’ve just finished a Degree (whilst working full time) so for 4 years, all I read were business related books - I never had the time to read anything as friviolous as novels !!! Since I graduated, I’ve found it difficult to get back into reading as a hobby, as a way of thinking creatively. I’m slowly getting back into it because I realise just how much I missed it.

Some of my siblings read avidly, some not… I think its partly nature, partly nuture.

23

I wonder how many avid readers were also “self-taught” readers? I, like so many others that have posted, just picked up how to read without much coaching–I was read to all the time, but no one tried to teach me how to decode words (sound them out, etc), I just figured it out. When I was learing how to be a teacher, the “teaching reading” class was incomprehensible to me, I couldn’t understand how to convey the idea of reading to someone who couldn’t do it (luckily, the only elementary class I ever taught was 5th grade–so they knew the basics, I just had to help them improve their reading skills). Anyway, reading was easy, I never struggled with it at all, always had excellent comprehension skills and read well above my grade/age level.

So how much did the fact it was easy have to do with the fact that I read all the time? Would I have been an avid reader if I had had to struggle to learn how to decode words? Anybody out there that had a hard time learning to read, but ended up being an avid reader? I’m sure there are, so I guess how many, compared to those who had it easy, is the real question. If so, how long did it take for you to be comfortable reading?

24

My experience tells me that it’s both. I learned to read and write shortly before kindergarten, as my mother taught me how to spell words, and then my brother and sister would teach me things they learned in school. As such, I had a very supportive learning environment before even starting school. By the time I entered kindergarten I could read and write, and had a basic knowledge of cursive writing.

However, the amount my various family members read varies greatly. My father and brother usually only read a handful of books a year, whereas my sister and I read several times more books than that. As a child I shared a bedroom with my brother, and I had to get a clip-on reading nightlight so that at night I could read under my covers without bothering my brother sleeping in the bed next to mine. I would spend much of the night reading whereas he preferred to actually sleep.

I don’t consider myself a “great” reader, as I find that I read fairly slowly. However, I am certainly an avid one :slight_smile:

25

I also think it was a combination of nature and nuture in my case. My father has always been very much into books. He used to buy all of us kids a book every Christmas, even before we could read. He would read the stories to us…I remember him reading The Hobbit and part of The Lord of the Rings to me when I was little.

But still, I taught myself how to read when I was 3 or 4. I can’t remember not being able to read or not being a printed-word addict. My fondest memories of kindergarten involve reading my way through naptime everyday. My siblings, despite being in more or less the same environment (actually, my younger brother got much less reading-aloud time than my younger sister, but he’s a much more eager reader than her), are not big fans of reading.

26

Until reading these posts, I would have said this was another area where there is no meaningful distinction between nature and nurture, both being provided by parents in most cases. I now see that it is more complicated than that.

I do not remember not reading, but since my memory barely extends past 2nd grade, big whoop. We always had plenty of books around. (My mom has a masters in Library Science, and my dad had a Ph. D. in mycology.) I think we counted somewhere around 1500 books in our house, and that didn’t count the ones in mine and my sibling’s rooms.

My sister and I are big readers, my brother enjoys reading, but he was never addicted. I don’t think it is a matter of not being sports minded, or anything like that. My brother and I were big on the outdoors, and big sports fans. I was too lazy to actually go out for any sports, though.

I believe I was hooked by science. My parents got me some National Geographic book called “Wild Animals of North America”. They thought I would look at the pictures. I damn near memorized the book. I’m pretty sure I was the only first grader to know the major geologic time periods, the major classes of mammals, etc. I remember checking out a science book in first grade “What is a Star” four or five times. I then graduated to “The Constellations” (still in print, and a great book). Yes, I am a geek. But so are you, or you wouldn’t be here.

I quickly discovered science fiction, and from that, fiction. At one point, I literally had read every science fiction book in our county libraries.

Children seem to have cured my addiction, though. Now, I only have time for the newspaper, cereal boxes, and books on tape. :frowning:

27

In my case, it was probably nature.

Dad was an avid reader for pleasure, mom was not–she read because she had to as part of her education and profession. I don’t believe either actively encouraged me to read, but they were very supportive. They would take me to the library and buy me books though it was at my urging.

Niether of my brothers actively read for the enjoyment of it. My older brother reads heavily, but he has to for his education. My younger brother can barely be motivated to read road signs.

I remember first being interested in reading because I was so interested in stories, and reading was a way to get more stories! I have always been heavily into imagination and love fiction. I’m not sure where that came from. Even though my father is an avid reader, he prefers non fiction.

28

My sister and I have always been avid readers…but we were always read to. And my parents were both readers, and we were given books. And there were books everywhere. We were constantly taken to the library (I remember wanting to be old enough to have a library card when I was 4), and books were there, and reading was encouraged. She’s going to try to become a children’s librarian.

OTOH, my brother didn’t really start reading until his teens. (He didn’t dislike reading, but there were often better things for him to do until then). He’s a writer.

For us, probably a combination of both. But in our case, how could you tell?

29

:smiley: Busted!

30

Like others here, a combination of nature and nurture.

My mother was an avid reader (and a teacher) but if she read to us as children, I can’t remember it. My father read slowly but was a total brain. (His idea of fun reading was “Scientific American”.) Oddly enough, I DO remember him reading to us. My parents divorced when I was very young but every Sunday Dad would hoist us into the big armchair with him and read the paper aloud to us. He’d run his finger along the lines of print for our benefit, and it all sorta sank in by osmosis.

This is really weird, but my (older) sister had a very rough time with it. At the time her school was gripped by some experimental fad in teaching reading. In effect they forced her to unlearn what and how she knew. Now this woman is brilliant (she inherited Dad’s brain, figuratively speaking) but to this day reading is much more laborious for her. We’d moved by the time I started school, which taught plain 'ol phonics. It was “same old, same old” for associating those squiggles with the sounds of language.

But we always had books, magazines and newspapers overflowing in both my parents’ houses. And they read. Monkey see, monkey do. Also, television was a rationed, chosen “extra”, not a default. But like ChrystinP, reading was my refuge and safe zone. When things got bad (and they often did, very bad) I dove into a book for escape, comfort, joy. All in all, reading was the safest, best, most rewarding drug I could have had. To this day I have trouble understanding what people who don’t read actually do to replace it for pure richness and reward. My blinkered bias, but hey.

I can and have lived without many things but I can’t do without reading. If I couldn’t read in some form I honestly don’t think I’d want to live.

Veb

31

I think it’s nature and nurture. I grew up with lots of books and am an avid reader. My sister is a keen reader but not avid.

My kids are both avid readers. P the Elder was diagnosed as dyslexic and I was heartbroken. The speech pathologist said he would never read for pleasure and I thought that was beyond sad. We read to him constantly though. About 2 years ago he began to read and was recently assessed as reading at an adult level. P the Younger is reading but at what level I have no idea as he won’t perform on request. He just likes to pop over my shoulder and read words at random. But these kids have been immersed in books and print since birth. Their cousins read reluctantly and not very well.

32

mine was nature- and not nurture but torture!!!

I think it was after a first grade parent teacher meeting when my immigrant mother decided that I had the aptitude of a donkey for the teacher to mention I needed help in reading. She sat me at the dinner table with my dad’s belt draped over the chair as a sign of things to come if my reading ability didnt improve.

Needless to say my reading comprehension leap frogged over that of my fellow classmates and I devoured every book we had in our home. A trip to the library ended with me in my bedroom reading seven books from cover to cover while my mother called me out to dinner. In the 7th grade I tested college level reading comprehension and my mother was given the option of letting me graduate early. My mother has a 6th grade education and my father dropped out of high school in 10th grade. They jointly decided that I needed the misery of high school life to make me “normal”. My husband and I consider a trip to Barnes and Noble the highlight of our date night and our kids have the example of two parents that spend 0% of the time on tv programs and 50% of the time reading a book.

33

My parents both set out to guarantee that my brother and I would be avid readers. We were it with doses of Winnie the Pooh and other classics from a very early age. My brother was already reading at a sixth grade level by the time he entered first grade. My parents were quite disappointed that I turned out to be a more normal case. We both read constantly through early childhood, but during our teenage years, oddly enough, we both went through phases of several years where we watched TV and played computer games constantly, and almost never read, except when school required it. But I’m pleased to report that both of us went back to reading in college. My brother prefers mostly classic literature, I like fantasy and science fiction. For me the catalyst was the Harry Potter books, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Oddly enough, neither of my parents are particularly avid readers themselves. My dad does read quite a bit, but almost no fiction. It’s mostly stuff related to his job (he’s a history professor). My mom doesn’t read very much, and she can’t read nearly as fast as the rest of us, possibly because she’s not a native English speaker.

34

A combination of nature and nurture in my case, like most people. My mum read to me heaps, and made sure I always had access to lots of books. But she started to do this because at the age of 3 I had started to read the names of shops on tv ads, and then recognised them when we went out - she thought that it would be good to encourage this.

She kept up the reading with my two younger sisters, and they love to read but don’t read as fast or as widely as I do.

Love of reading can be taught, if someone takes the time and care to show how wonderful it can be. But I think the urge to read avidly must be part of an individual’s personality.

35

I think it’s all nature. I think the people who state it’s nurture or that it’s a little of both just coincidently grew up with parent(s) that just happened to also love reading.

Neither of my parents EVER read a THING to any of us, yet all four of us were avid readers. Even today, I must have something to read when I’m eating (I usually eat alone since it’s just me and my nearly grown son).

Naturally, being a book lover myself, I started reading to my son before he was even old enough to understand. I finally quit by the time he was about six becuase he was clearly bored. He hates reading and hates being read to. And funnily enough, he is a “language” person. He is in AP English (although not getting the best of grades becuase it, expectedly, requires quite a bit of reading and he does it grudgingly) and is a very talented writer.

Purely nature.

36

Lots of people have mentioned not having TV or not watching TV as part of the reason they either had time for books or got into books. But books and TV aren’t mutually exclusive. The TV was always on in my house, and I have a fairly extensive store of pop culture knowledge because of it. I also always read with the TV on (and still do) and so did my whole family. We all did our homework in front of the TV, and we were all straight A students (okay, I got a “B” in Citizenship a few times, I wasn’t good at sharing). There are very few shows on TV that can’t be enjoyed at the same time as a book, and a good book will shut out anything on TV (for me at least). I’m pre-Sesame Street (thank the Gods), but one of the people who read to me was Captain Kangaroo. But showing the illustrations while reading the book was the closest TV came to “teaching” me to read. So I watched junk TV–non-educational, loud, violent, silly, and just plain bizarre (H.R. Puff’nstuff? the Banana Splits? the Monkeys? Wild, Wild West?–these were not normal shows). So by no stretch of the imagination can you say TV helped teach me to read. But it didn’t get in my way, either.

I have to put a bit more weight on nature–my brain found it easy to read, and watching endless TV, spending endless hours playing baseball, and even having to do stupid phonics worksheets instead of reading stories, didn’t stop my brain from knowing what to do. This is not to say that people who struggle to learn to read can’t become excellent readers (I think all humans are wired to be able to read), and read for pleasure. But if you were to classify avid readers based on how/when they learned to read/started to read, I bet that the people who learned quickly and easily would be a larger class.

37

So my question of you avid readers is: were you ALWAYS a serious reader, even as a kid?
Absolutely! I credit my older sister with teaching me to read at an early age.
Did your parents successfully encourage you to read?
Mom and Grandparents. We all lived together.
Do your siblings read a lot too?
Yes.
And, lastly, do you think some people are just “wired” to be more interested in language and thus to be better and more avid readers?
It seems to me what we gained by “nurture” was a love and respect for books. While we both read daily my sister and I make very different selections. I read novels and short fiction and an occasional biography. My sister reads a great deal more non-fiction. I think my best answer for the ast question is that yes, some people are wired to love language however, that isn’t necessarily requisite for a love of books. The sense I get is that my sister does not pause as she reads to revel in a perfectly formed sentence in the middle in the book she’s reading about the Plantagenets.

Now, my boyfriend is a different story, and another argument for the “Nurture” (or lack of it) notion. He explains that he went to a progressive primary school where the students set their own goals so he played with the magnets and other kid-physics toys. Reading was not stressed in his home or early education and now reading is a chore for him. I should say reading a book. He cannot pass a newspaper without picking it up andreading it, but to sit down and read a book is never how he chooses to spend his time.

38

I’d guess 90% nature, 10% nurture.

I am constantly reading. My sister reads occasionally. My mother is a constant reader. My dad, almost never.

We grew up in a house full of books, with constant offers of library trips, etc. Why do I read more? Why does she do crafts, in which I have zero interest? Why does my kid, brought up to read, prefer “building” toys?

We were all nurtured to read. Those who chose reading as a primary hobby, IMHO (and isn’t that where this thread is?) did so by nature.