It was my second year of living in
Germany as an
army brat. The first year, my family lived in a remote village in the mountains, and during the second year, when I was 10 years old, we moved to the Air Force base at
Frankfurt am Main This was in the
dark ages,
Gutenberg's new
printing press was still wowing the masses (circa 1961). There were no
television stations in
English at that time and my family had put our tv set in storage when we moved. I did have access to American Services Radio, but it was wholly inadequate mental stimulation.
I was already a fairly ambitious reader, having learned before I started public school. My fifth grade teacher told the class that we could turn in as many book reports as we wanted to that year. I not only had access to the library at the elementary school, but now that we lived in the city, I had access to the base library. I invested the nickels and dimes I earned in flashlight batteries and read incessantly. I discovered the wide range of data available in fiction and non-fiction. I discovered Shakespeare, Darwin, science fiction and romance novels - (I had to hide those - my mother thought I was too young for their racy nature.) I fell in love with information. I also turned in 200 book reports that year - merely because the teacher didn't believe I could when I told her my goal was over 100.
I am still a prolific reader - averaging 8 books or more per month. I still love information. I love stories. I love the pictures my mind evolves for me as I read. My son learned to read when he was four. I read to him nightly until he was 8 or 9, and at almost 19, is still an avid reader of multiple subjects. It used to be a joke in my family, when my son was young and he or one of his cousins asked me a question, my answer would usually include ". . . and I have a book. . ." so that when other of my siblings were in the room and a kid asked a question, they would answer "Your aunt has a book."
This has been a public service message from a reader who is happy that her son turned out (a bit) like her.