I have to admit I only faintly remember what I originally wrote in this post, so excuse me if my comment seems somewhat disjointed. I don't think I really went for the typical girls' books either. Okay, I did read Sweet Valley High and such as a pre-teen, but I also kind of loved the Nancy Drew books. They got repetitive after a while, but I still read at least 100 of them, probably more. Quite possibly every single one of them that my local library had. The point about parents reading to their children is so important! My mother read to me a lot when I was a kid. Also, a was in a private daycare before I went to school and the nurse had a massive pile of storybooks (mostly the cleaned up Grimm stories) and I remember we got to pick which one she'd read to us. Sitting in her kitchen, listening to her read and looking at the pictures in the book is one of my fondest childhood memories. And really, if you don't grow up in an environment where people around you read, you're not very likely to start reading a lot yourself. If I ever have kids I'm sure as hell going to read them.
I believe sometimes you can discover things that are important for yourself in books. Get a new perspective on things, learn about other cultures or people. Or just something light to let you relax after a hard day, something to make you smile. This is what I love about reading and probably the biggest reason why I read. Funny enough, in the recent years I've read more then I think I would. Maybe I'm spending more days off with a book (or a fic) or then I watched more TV or something like that in the past. Or maybe there simply is a lot more interesting books around right now.
I'm still very much sticking to physical books. Partly because trying to find a decent ereader in Finland is like looking for a needle in a dozen haystacks, partly because I've worked in a bookstore and there is just something about being surrounded by books every day. Some might think that seeing and having to deal with books every single day would put you off from wanting to pick up one when you get home, but it doesn't. And I hear you about getting to know different types of books because of the internet. I know such a large amount of people who read and every once in a while they recommend something I completely fall in love with.
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I don't think I really went for the typical girls' books either. Okay, I did read Sweet Valley High and such as a pre-teen, but I also kind of loved the Nancy Drew books. They got repetitive after a while, but I still read at least 100 of them, probably more. Quite possibly every single one of them that my local library had.
The point about parents reading to their children is so important! My mother read to me a lot when I was a kid. Also, a was in a private daycare before I went to school and the nurse had a massive pile of storybooks (mostly the cleaned up Grimm stories) and I remember we got to pick which one she'd read to us. Sitting in her kitchen, listening to her read and looking at the pictures in the book is one of my fondest childhood memories. And really, if you don't grow up in an environment where people around you read, you're not very likely to start reading a lot yourself. If I ever have kids I'm sure as hell going to read them.
I believe sometimes you can discover things that are important for yourself in books. Get a new perspective on things, learn about other cultures or people. Or just something light to let you relax after a hard day, something to make you smile.
This is what I love about reading and probably the biggest reason why I read. Funny enough, in the recent years I've read more then I think I would. Maybe I'm spending more days off with a book (or a fic) or then I watched more TV or something like that in the past. Or maybe there simply is a lot more interesting books around right now.
I'm still very much sticking to physical books. Partly because trying to find a decent ereader in Finland is like looking for a needle in a dozen haystacks, partly because I've worked in a bookstore and there is just something about being surrounded by books every day. Some might think that seeing and having to deal with books every single day would put you off from wanting to pick up one when you get home, but it doesn't. And I hear you about getting to know different types of books because of the internet. I know such a large amount of people who read and every once in a while they recommend something I completely fall in love with.