What Gave You A Love For Reading Books If You Have?

[Borg warner]

I also like short stories. This is my favorite, "The Catbird Seat" by James Thurber. It's short enough that you can comfortably read it online. Anything longer I can't read online and prefer print.

http://fullreads.com/literature/the-catbird-seat/

[DrB]

24 minutes ago, Borg warner said:

I also like short stories. This is my favorite, "The Catbird Seat" by James Thurber. It's short enough that you can comfortably read it online. Anything longer I can't read online and prefer print.

http://fullreads.com/literature/the-catbird-seat/

O. Henry we had to read in school, English Class.  I did like and remember for short stories....

Dave.

[janice6]

Just now, deputy tom said:

Yes you did. This is the second time this morning that I read it. tom.

 

 

Crap!  I put it in the wrong thread.

I just got a new computer and funny things are happening.  Some combinations of keys jumps me from the text, to already posted, other times it will jump threads on me.

I also don't like the screwing around Microsoft does with the OS, and how it displays differently form one version to the next.

All that money, and I have the same thing as before with new idiosyncrasies.

[railfancwb]

Any of you ever read the entire Bible front to back?

Well, yes I have. Several times years ago.

Getting ready to start again, using the marvels of electronics and the internet.


https://www.bibleinayear.org/index.asp


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DrB]

52 minutes ago, janice6 said:

Crap!  I put it in the wrong thread.

I just got a new computer and funny things are happening.  Some combinations of keys jumps me from the text, to already posted, other times it will jump threads on me.

I also don't like the screwing around Microsoft does with the OS, and how it displays differently form one version to the next.

All that money, and I have the same thing as before with new idiosyncrasies.

Hahaa. No Harm.. No Foul....

[Historian]

1 hour ago, janice6 said:

Crap!  I put it in the wrong thread.

It's not like you drunk posted.  Lord knows i've done that. Usually i get the most positive responses to those posts.

 

[Walt Longmire]

51 minutes ago, Historian said:

It's not like you drunk posted.  Lord knows i've done that. Usually i get the most positive responses to those posts.

 

Or banned.

[Jack Ryan]

On 12/20/2019 at 8:20 PM, DrB said:

For me, my mom took me and my sister to the library every week in the summer when we were off school.  Farm folks but mom made us read.  We had to get books to read each week.

For me I read every Hardy Boy book they had.  Mom also had us order some paperbacks from an order form some company that the school had send us.  I loved getting those paperbacks.  Twice each summer when the list came we could look over the list and order two each.  I carried those paperbacks in my back pocket and would read under the shade of a tree when my chores were done. 

The memories of the shade of a tree, the big blue sky with a few cotton clouds overhead and that paperback book remains with me always as a young boy.

In High School in English Class we read Animal Farm and 1984 By George Orwell.  Also Edgar Allen Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart and the Pit and the Pendulum come to mind for a few.

Many more...  I thank my Mom and my English teachers for giving me the love of books.  How about you?

Dave.

Our local library had some kind of reading promo in the summers for kids. I could walk to the library from home.  This was the FIRST book I checked out and it was on, from there on. What ever the award was for what ever amount read per summer, I maxed out every year.

https://www.amazon.com/Bears-Blue-River-Charles-Major/dp/1448632692

I read all the Hardy boys, then I discovered autobiographies.  Our library had shelf after shelf of these. Must have been some kind of special because I could find them easy they were all in one spot, all lined up together on shelves and all had covers that looked alike. I started out picking out people I'd heard of and finished up just looking for ANY OF them I hadn't read. Presidents, generals, inventors, explorers, Boone, Crocket, Edison, Grant, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Cody, Bowie, then leaders from all over the rest of the world.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Jack Ryan

[Walt Longmire]

7 minutes ago, Jack Ryan said:

Our local library had some kind of reading promo in the summers for kids. I could walk to the library from home.  This was the FIRST book I checked out and it was on, from there on. What ever the award was for what ever amount read per summer, I maxed out every year.

https://www.amazon.com/Bears-Blue-River-Charles-Major/dp/1448632692

I have an original of that book.

[DrB]

In college we had to take some classes outside our major.  Some were szooze. classes but zi took one one Chinese history.  The instructor told us to turn in the course books and get " Red Sta Over China" by Edgar Snow.  He taught that book with a passion, I will never forget that class, and no he was not Chinese.  This was in the early 70's.  You wanted to be in that class and wanted to read that book.  No one slept in that class.

I still have that book in my library.  One of those good folks in college who made the side courses worthwhile.  Mr. Zentos was his name.

Dave..

[tadbart]

When I was 5 or 6, I had a Funk and Wagnall's Illustrated Encyclopedia set. I read that thing Aardvark to Zimbabwe. I can still to this day, 40 years later, see the colors and texture of the covers, smell the old paper pages, and see grainy photos of strange animals and places, Saturn rockets and battleships.

[Historian]

10 hours ago, Walt Longmire said:

Or banned.

I got a warning on my first posting on another name-less site.  They were so rude...i just told them off and never came back.

 

[jmohme]

I really don't know what inspired me to start reading. It certainly was not my experiences in school.

The first time I had to give a book report almost turned me completely off of reading.

I got over that though. I currently have a backlog of about 30 books that are waiting to be read.

[Historian]

Under the tree, i suspect, Mrs. Historian...has given me....Killer Angels.

A book...i have not read...in an area i am moderately well versed. 

"Run ber, rabbit.  I'd run too; if I could," Johnny Reb about the make Pickett's charge.

The rest of the week they can find me in my rocking chair with coffee and a book.

Reading is one of life's greatest joys.  Through it we learn from other's experiences.  It gives us perspective.

[Jack Ryan]

On 12/22/2019 at 8:18 AM, tadbart said:

When I was 5 or 6, I had a Funk and Wagnall's Illustrated Encyclopedia set. I read that thing Aardvark to Zimbabwe. I can still to this day, 40 years later, see the colors and texture of the covers, smell the old paper pages, and see grainy photos of strange animals and places, Saturn rockets and battleships.

We had several sets of Encylopedias as well at our house. New ones and old ones and when I was 13 we bought and remodeled a house built in the late 1800s.

Edited January 12, 2021 by Jack Ryan

[janice6]

Just now, tadbart said:

When I was 5 or 6, I had a Funk and Wagnall's Illustrated Encyclopedia set. I read that thing Aardvark to Zimbabwe. I can still to this day, 40 years later, see the colors and texture of the covers, smell the old paper pages, and see grainy photos of strange animals and places, Saturn rockets and battleships.

In study hall I used to be bored, so I would read the Dictionary or an Encyclopedia.  I figured out if I didn't care what the subject was, I might as well let the book pick it for me.  There actually was fascinating stuff in both!

My first book from the library was an electronic for beginners.  I made voltmeters from Neon Bulbs and all kinds of great stuff utilizing the characteristics of Neon bulbs.  I even built a code practice oscillator from Neon bulbs.  It was the beginning of a long term relationship on the subject.

Edited December 22, 2019 by janice6

[DrB]

3 minutes ago, janice6 said:

My first book from the library was an electronic for beginners.  I made voltmeters from Neon Bulbs and all kinds of great stuff utilizing the characteristics of Neon bulbs.  I even built a code practice oscillator from Neon bulbs.  It was the beginning of a long term relationship on the subject.

I did all that also....  I remember almost electrocuting myself on many occasions also.  The zap from the high voltage anode on a CRT sent me flat on the floor once. 

Dave...

[janice6]

Just now, DrB said:

I did all that also....  I remember almost electrocuting myself on many occasions also.  The zap from the high voltage anode on a CRT sent me flat on the floor once. 

Dave...

I was measuring an old surplus transformer for high voltage one time.   The phone rang and I picked it up.  After a while talking, I put my hand down for a moment.  Right across the transformer terminals.

We all had a good laugh when I had to tell them why I threw the phone against the wall.

I got so many shocks that eventually they weren't that big a deal anymore.  I worked on live outlets and switches and might feel a tingling if I held them wrong.

[Cougar_ml]

We didn't have a TV growing up.  

Not because it wasn't available, we just live in a little valley with terrible reception, so when dad cut down the tree he had the antenna on, he never put it back up, and we only had the VCR to watch movies and such.

Add to no TV the fact that it rains a lot here.  

 

love of reading is a family trait.  My grandfather worked hard all his life, but had a lot of books.

My dad told me stories about when they were growing up, the book mobile would stop by.

At any one time him and his siblings had more books checked out than the entire nearby town did.  

I remember reading a lot of Boxcar Children books, and Little House on the Prairie.  My parents gave me a few children's encyclopedias as well.  

Then there was Louis L'Amour.  Dad had almost all of his books in paperback, and I read every one he had.

In middle school I was reading Tom Clancy and other large, adult level books.

I think in 7th grade I read Shogun.  It took all of 2 days (it's 1200 pages)

 

My son and nieces school wants them to read 20 minutes a day.  My son rarely reads less than an hour, often several hours.  

The school system does something called "AR Points" where the kid reads a book, fills out a short quiz to make sure they read it, then they get credit for it.  Points vary by book difficulty level.

If I recall correctly, in 3rd grade it was something like 40 or 50 points.  My son was well over 100.

My niece stopped doing AR tests because one year she was over 1000 points, and ran out of easily available books she could take tests on. (it might have actually been over 10,000 points, but it was a while ago that I heard her talk about it.  Needless to say, either way it was more than necessary for her entire school career)

 

 

 

 

[janice6]

In high school my English teacher always had reading quizzes.  She always rebuked me for finishing so quickly. 

She would then give a test on the content of what you read.  I always aced the quizzes which would cause a slow burn in her.

However, at the time, and even now, she was the teacher I most respected and valued.  I would never tell her that, 'cause you weren't supposed to like your teachers back then.

But I could tell in every task and criticism I had from her, she honestly cared about me.  I remember her fondly to this day!

[DrB]

We had an experimental speed reading class in Junior High School.  You could get into it if your grades were good.  Can't remember just what speed I had but they shot for 300 wpm minimum with 80% comprehension if I remember correct. 

To this day it takes me less than 5 mins. to read a newspaper.  I see some in the library take 45 mins. or more.  Yes I am a Library Rat...  I like to hold the paper...

Dave..

[DrB]

First paragraph plus 1/2.  Skip to middle read that one, then last paragraph.  Subject, Relevant Points, Conclusion.  All the rest in between is opinion, filler and whatnot. What we were taught with newspapers. Works for me still to this day...

Dave

[railfancwb]

I did all that also....  I remember almost electrocuting myself on many occasions also.  The zap from the high voltage anode on a CRT sent me flat on the floor once. 
Dave...

Read in a book about making a Tesla Coil using a Model T spark coil for the intermediate transformer. At that time Model T spark coils were readily available and inexpensive at the local Western Auto.

Model T spark coils have a buzzer in the primary circuit to creat the current fluctuation necessary for an electric transformer to transform. A transformer will not work with pure direct current.

Dry cell batteries in the large economy size were expensive at my income level, but I had a toy train transformer which I hooked up to the primary of that coil. Model T batteries were 6 volts DC. I had at least 18 volts AC so that baby could REALLY spark.

Threw an arc at least a 1/2” long into my trigger finger. Had an ingrown wart where that spark hit for decades thereafter.


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[railfancwb]

First paragraph plus 1/2.  Skip to middle read that one, then last paragraph.  Subject, Relevant Points, Conclusion.  All the rest in between is opinion, filler and whatnot. What we were taught with newspapers. Works for me still to this day...
Dave

Not unlike the preacher said:

First you tell them what you are going to tell them.

Then you tell them.

Then you tell them what you told them.


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[DrB]

We had a big A big Tesla coil in college.  The plasma gap could cut through a phone book, about an inch and a half thick.