sumo89
an hour ago
The His Dark Materials was probably the first books I got really in to and some of the only books I've ever re-read. I read a couple of others by the same author but wasn't grabbed as much. I think I was around 13 at the time. Harry Potter were probably some of the first "long" books that I ever read but I wasn't a huge fan and gave up by the third. I'd say those along with random Discworld and assorted fantasy books planted the seeds of enjoying reading but it did go hand in hand with sitting next to my mum and enjoying the experience. Taking a book on holiday and sitting in the sun reading rather than just playing on my gameboy, which happened too but without bans on screen time more like just encouragement to join in the reading activity. Maybe bad battery lives and non-backlit screens helped too. One book that's always stuck in my memory since is Freakonomics. I read it when I was a teenager and the very logical thinking hit a real nerve. I know the book has had controversy since but I can't say I took away any specific example of "Sumo wrestlers like to cheat" or whatever, but the way of thinking it encouraged has definitely stuck with me. My partner read some Malcolm Gladwell books when she was younger and she was definitely a fan for a similar reason. I think they're a load of tosh with generous leaps of logic but I can understand the appeal of something that encourages you to look beyond the obvious.