Bookish Corner

How I Fell In Love With Reading || Ft. Bedtime Tales and A Magical Storybook

Pavani @ The Voracious Bibliophile36 Comments

Oh no, I missed the Hogwarts Express again! I’ll never get to Hogwarts this way. *sighs* Guess I’ll have to go back to boring old school.

I’ve loved reading since forever, and I prefer it to talking, eating, breathing, playing, studying and even *gasp* sleeping. My journey with books has been long and amazing, full of magic, victories, deaths, Gods, sorcerers and deceiving cupboards. But… how did it all begin?

You see, my entire family are readers, so naturally, I was introduced to books before phones, computers, television, food, water, clothes, light, oxygen and humans. Just kidding! I did know what a TV was.

To kick-start my reading journey, my parents bought me an adorably tiny, but heavy book: My Giant Treasury of Stories And Rhymes. As far as first books go, this is definitely one of the best. It has short stories and poems about teddy bears, princes and princesses, brothers and sisters, knights and castles, Kings and Queens, toads and tiny humans. Here, take a peek.

An elderly storybook
A worn-out binding
The tale of a lonely teddy bear *sniffs*
A tale of mystery and adventure

Yes, I still have it, held together by rubber bands. Brilliant, isn’t it?

Since I wasn’t born knowing how to read (unfortunately), my grandmother took up the task of reading me bedtime stories. This made bedtime my favourite part of the day. I loved listening to these stories and I often demanded 2-3 stories a night. Thankfully, my grandmother is a very patient and loving lady!

By the time I was three, I’d decided my favourite story was Thumbelina, a story about a toad and a thumb-sized little girl. I had heard it enough times to have memorized it, and now I corrected my grandmother whenever she went wrong.

My mom was delighted when she heard I’d learnt the entire story, so she recorded my recitation of the whole thing, word for word, from beginning to end. 😂 And that was the beginning of my love for reading. Maybe even the day I decided I wanted to be an author. There was no stopping for me after that!

On that note, I just finished reading One of Us is Lying. And damn, it’s amazing. If you haven’t read it yet, add it to your TBR ASAP!

So, what about you? What was the first book you ever read? Did you listen to bedtime stories? How did you fall in love with reading?

36 thoughts on “How I Fell In Love With Reading || Ft. Bedtime Tales and A Magical Storybook”

  1. […] Here’s my lovely, magical, tiny (but thick and heavy) storybook, the one from which my grandmother read to me every night. It had stories about powerful kingdoms, old and wise teddy bears and their often careless owners, little girls who made pacts with evil old women, the classic Jack and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks. My special favourite was Thumbelina, the story of a thumb-sized girl who was kidnapped by a frog and adventured on to find her own, thumb-sized prince. This adorable, well-used book is the story of how I fell in love with reading. […]

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  4. This was super sweet! I always love hearing how readers get into reading. The fact that you have that book held together by rubber bands is SO relatable. If I were to grab my old, ratty paperback of the first Harry Potter book, I’m not joking, pages would fall out of it and land to the floor. I know this from experience: it is fragile and easily falls apart.

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  6. Ohh such a lovely post! And I actually have a similar story. It wasn’t my first book but I loved the books about a little witch called Lily and one day I “read” the story aloud to my mom and she really thought I could suddenly read … until I forgot to turn the page 😂

    Other than that I remember my grandpa always telling me the Greek myths and spooky stories. I think the Blair Witch Project was my fav story when I was 5/6

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  7. Woah I’m so impressed with you keeping up your first story cause I don’t remember my first story, I never grow up in a family of reader yet I had been reading like since forever without doubts, I remember when I do hid away whenever am reading.

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  8. I am so deeply in love with reading too! Sometimes my tongue slips and I catch myself saying: ‘I love books’. Is that true though? It is a bit true – I love holding a book, opening it for the 1st time (and all the other times), I even smell it. But what I do love is immerse myself in reading.

    I’m thinking now; maybe I do love books more than I’d admit, because I’ve never swapped them for an e-reader.
    Aww thanks for bringing me these memories, thoughts and good feelings!

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    • Oh yes, the smell of new books is wonderful. And immersing yourself in a new book, a new world, is the best feeling ever!
      Since I’m usually not allowed to buy books (they’re threatening to take over the house), I have to resort to reading e-books. But yes, books are and will always be my first choice! Thanks, Anthony!

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  9. Hi..! I enjoyed reading about your journey..! And the book pictures are 😍 I love old books that are falling apart but we’ve kept together..
    I don’t clearly remember exactly when or what made me get into reading..
    But i used to love listening to a story my dad told me everytime I’d stand on his aching legs when I was small.. That was how he lured me to stand..😂🙈🙈

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  10. One of the first books I remember reading was Crosspatch. It’s out of print now but I loved the story about a little lion that was always cross. I still have my copy on my bookshelf. I bought another copy that I need to somehow fix so that I can let my nieces and nephew read.

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  11. That opening line, though. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, because wow was I so disappointed when I turned 11 and no owls appeared. xD That book definitely looks well loved and cute, and it’s so neat that you still have it! We’ve unfortunately lost a lot of my older books during a flood, but I still have a few family books left, thankfully. This story is so sweet! Do you still have your mother’s recording of you reciting Thumbelina?! I was three when I decided I wanted to be a writer, and my mother still has my first “short story.” Probably for future blackmail potential.

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  14. This is a lovely post – I still have my favourite childhood book, which is a big hardback book of fairy tales – and I’m 56 lol – wish I could send a picture but we now live on a Narrowboat and I’ve had to leave it boxed up for safekeeping 😊

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  16. I can’t believe you still have that book! It looks so loved! I remember having a similar sort of book that I loved and even though I couldn’t read it myself I loved looking through it at the pictures. My younger sister destroyed it though so I don’t have it now!

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    • This book is approximately 13 years old this year, Tasha! It’s being held together by rubber bands now, since the covers and pages are falling out. I can’t really let go of it, because it’s my first book ever, so it means a lot. Thankfully, it doesn’t interest my brother so it still survives!

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  18. Oh hey writer!!
    Your post was soooo relatable. I too am a bibliophile (not voracious, I guess). Am a new visitor to this blog and plan to be a permanent one.
    Best of luck!!

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