The End Justifies the Memes
By Mitch Berg
1.How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?
I was four or five, I think. Not sure who taught me, but I distinctly remember the first word I ever read; my dad was in grad school in Fargo, and my mom, her parents and I were driving there to see him. I remember looking at a road sign and sounding out “F…AR…Go! FARGO!”. They were pretty excited.
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?
“My” first book was a little pocket book of World War II airplanes that had been my dad’s when he was a kid. I read it constantly for years. My first library book was actually the American Heritage history of the Civil War when I was in first grade. It was a little over my reading level – I remember proudly reading about the “UNN-yun” and “con-FEED-rate” armies – but the pictures of uniforms were soooo cool…
3.What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?
A book of Civil War stories.
4.Were you a re-reader as a child? If so, which book did you re-read most often?
There were books I read many times. I probably re-read “The Wooden Horse” at least a dozen times.
5.What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?
That’s a tough one. I hardly ever read “kids'” books. I was pretty much checking all my books out of the adult section by third grade.
6.Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult? Which ones?
Winnie the Pooh, and the whole Madeleine series.
Bonus Question: Are there books you remember reading as a child that you either can’t find now or can’t remember the title?
Nope!
December 1st, 2006 at 11:47 am
I’m assuming this is an invitation to answer the same questions.
1. I learned to sound out words just before kindergarten. My older brother taught me. I now read everything I can get my hands on, he rarely reads.
2. Depending upon when you figure childhood ends, I had 3 Hardy Boys books, and a kid-style biography of Abraham Lincoln.
3.The first book I bought with my own money was “the Secret Warning” – Hardy Boys mysteries. $.25 at a garage sale.
4. I read frequently as a child. Hardy Boys, Alvin Frenald, and the Great Brain series, there also was a particular series of biographies for kids that I read in grade school, Lincoln, Washington, FDR, G.W. Carver, Frederick Douglas – a great way to teach history and a love of history.
5. I don’t know this one. I read Michener’s “Centennial” in 7th grade, but I doubt that was the first adult book I read. Unless you mean “Playboy.”
6. Kids books I love today: “The Great Brain” series. With luck, I’ll convince my kids to love these also. Also, “Johnny Tremain,” and “The Disappearance of Mr. Allan.”
Bonus: A shorter book about the old west, a kid who is a loner who finds and trains a horse, and takes it camping. “Blaze?”
December 1st, 2006 at 4:23 pm
1. I don’t really know…before 1st grade. I can’t remember not knowing how to read. Either my mom taught me or the kindergarten teacher.
2. I owned gobs of books. It’s what I bought when given money. I’d go to the second-hand store and buy big, old books. The first book I remember, tho, is “The Night Before Christmas” and “Ships” (both Little Golden Books).
3. I bought a 1912 edition of “Pollyanna”, an 1897 edition of “Two Little Pilgrims’ Progress”-the latter about two orphan siblings who go to the World’s Fair in Chicago. I loved it! They boiled 2 dozen eggs and carried them along to eat for all that time…kids were enterprising in those days.
4. Yes, I was a rereader. “Black Beauty” countless times. “White Fang” at least 10!
5. I think some of the books I read while in the elementary years were adult books, but maybe not. I would possibly say “American-the Life Story of a Great Indian” by Frank Linderman. I probably read that in 6th or 7th grade.
6. I found that the L Frank Baum books that are after “The Wizard of Oz” are pretty neat.
Bonus question: It seems there was one that involved traveling in the Himalayas, mysterious goings-on, magic and India. Maybe airplanes were involved…
December 1st, 2006 at 4:41 pm
1) 4-5 years old, definitely before kindergarten.
2) I can’t remember the first book I owned (well, that parents bought for me), but I do remember that I had several dozen of the “little golden books” and a lot of the big illustrated Richard Scarry books, also before kindergarten. As for library books, I often remember going to the library in the morning when there was a severe weather forecast for the afternoon or evening, and checking out lots (8-12) of kids books to read while sitting in the basement waiting for the storm to pass, but I can’t remember specific titles.
3) I had a collection of over 300 Richie Rich comic books I bought with my allowance when I was in elementary school. Richie Rich and Unca Scrooge were my favorite comic books as a kid. I’m sure that had something to do with my parent’s low-income levels. I also bought lots of car/motorcycle and other magazines when I had money, and that was almost my sole focus of recreational reading in Jr and Sr high. The first adult NOVEL I can remember purchasing was technothriller titled “Storming Intrepid”, about the Russians infiltrating NASA with a spy groomed for USA astronaut duty since childhood, to hijack the Space Shuttle Intrepid when they found out it would be launched with a secret laser beam weapon payload. Or something like that. That novel sparked my love of polticical/military thrillers like the Jack Ryan and John Clark series by Tom Clancy, and by everything by local Twin Cities author Vince Flynn (Better than Clancy IMHO)
4) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Also re-read lots of “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, but that’s what they were designed for.
5) Involuntary: “A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. 11th grade. Voluntary: Storming Intrepid, I think around age 19. (Altho the great focus of my youth reading of adult material had been car, motorcycle, and Model Railroader magazines since jr high. Funny how I still read car and motorcycle magazines to this day. Imagine that!). Oh, and reading Patrick’s response reminded me that I had a phase in Sr high and college where I read several Michener geographic history novels (Centennial, Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, Chesapeake, Mexico) that started when I was sitting somewhere, bored out of my skull and picked up Alaska and started it since there was nothing else to do for an afternoon. Serendipity.
6&7) nope.
December 2nd, 2006 at 5:22 am
Bill, I rather enjoyed reading “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch”, but it was written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I learned to read, modestly, before kindergarten. A doting mother and relatives read to me a lot, and I followed the text as they were doing it. By fourth grade I was borrowing thick novels from cousins, including Pearl Buck’s fine works on China. By sixth grade, thanks to gifts from relatives and two fellows who courted my widowed mother, I had a collection of comic books numbering over a thousand. I preferred reading encyclopedias. Then we moved to another town between seventh and eighth grades, and my transfer of records failed to go through. My new school system put me in the only spot they considered open, which was in the so-called “dummy” home room. I was bored out of my wits as the teacher read books and short stories to us, the most mature of which was “The Yearling”, by Rawlings. I continued to be a voracious reader, but my reading became disconnected from my scholastic life. Many of the books and writers mentioned above were also dear to me. I went through thousands of magazines, ranging from Boys’ Life to National Geographic to the various outdoor magaines to all the news and commentary magazines and the membership magazines, whether AAA or from Mensa. Life wouldn’t have been the same without the extensive reading.
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:56 am
My bad. It was to long ago, and not that important to me any more. I know I had to read something by Dostoevsky too. I took a class called “Russian-American History” that could be used for English or Social Studies credit.
December 3rd, 2006 at 10:37 pm
The whole Madeline series? Mitch, are you gay?
Not that there’s anything wrong with that….