Tagged by Elizabeth (sorry it’s taken so long to get round to doing it!)
1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?
I started off at school in Africa (in my mum’s class!) and was nearly 6 when I came to live with my grandparents. I have no idea whether or not I could read by then (far too many other things going on!) but I do remember that my grandmother withdrew me from reading lessons because they used the ITA and she (a semi-retired p/t teacher at that school) felt it was such a confusing system that she preferred me not to be exposed to it. Presumably, then, I could already read, or else she taught me, because before I left that school at 8 I was off the reading age charts…
2. Did you own any books as a child? If so, what’s the first one that you remember owning? If not, do you recall any of the first titles that you borrowed from the library?
I inherited hundreds of books, left behind by my globe-trotting bookworm father and his younger sister 🙂
The earliest ones I remember having as my very own were probably Miffy’s Bouncy Ball (which I still have!) and a Richard Scarry Busy Book (Busy Busy Word Book?)
3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?
No idea, but almost certainly from a charity shop, as I used to haunt them regularly 🙂
Actually, I didn’t buy many books really, because both my grandparents’ house and my father’s house were crammed full of them already and I was a regular library user besides. At secondary school we could take 4 books from the school library, which I did at least twice a week, and 10 books form the town library, which I did at least weekly 🙂
4. Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often?
Yes! If a book wasn’t worth rereading it wasn’t worth keeping – and I kept a lot! Even now in times of illness/tiredness/stress I go back to old childhood favourites like the Willard Price Adventure books, Anne of Green Gables, My Naughty Little Sister, the Narnia books and, slightly later, Robert Heinlein, Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen…
5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?
The first time I read a book definitely too old for me was at about 6 when I picked up The Lord of the Rings, read up to a scary bit, slammed the book shut and didn’t look at it again until we read it as a class book in school! Not really an adult book though, I guess. Probably Robert Heinlein (I think Friday was the first I read at about 8 or 9 – not entirely suitable, but my dad was a fan and used to leave books around all over the place!) or quite possibly Austen (Pride and Prejudice, maybe) at a similar age. Oh, and I went through a crime thriller phase from about 11: Dick Francis, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Taylor, Agatha Christie…
6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones?
We had a few Dr Seuss, but I’ve only really come across the full breadth recently, looking for books for my children. Oh, and Winnie the Pooh completely passed me by until I was a student, when I joined the Sheila and her Dog Society, which basically meant lots of pyjama parties, drinking hot chocolate, eating Maltesers and reading children’s stories in silly voices 😆 After that we used to organise Pooh-reading parties for Methsoc 😀
