Lin's Perspective

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @DiniPandaReads! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.

Today’s topic is a Freebie! How Did You Get Into Reading? (Alli @ Alli the Book Giraffe) (from July 2024)

Prompts: How did you get into reading? Did you immediately love it, or did it take you a while? Who first introduced you to books – parents, friends, teachers? Did you grow up around book lovers, or did you find a love of reading on your own? Which books started your love of reading?

At the end of May, the weather is rainy, chilly, and cloudy here. Very not May-like weather at all… We have been told that the heat this year will be awful and to brace ourselves for the worst heatwave ever yet for our country. Not sure how I am supposed to take this news, we shall see. I guess we will go hide in the deep mountains if this is the case LOL!

How did you get into reading? Did you immediately love it, or did it take you a while? Which books started your love of reading?

As a teenager, I used to faint a lot! This has led to being transported to the hospital via ambulance pretty much 6/8 times a month. The school was obliged to call them, even though I was telling them I was alright. My mum did every possible test there was, blood tests, hormonal tests, TILT tests, MRI, CT scan, whatever you can think of, I have done it. So when they could not find a physical issue, they told my mum I was doing it for attention, and it was all psychological. So we went to a psychologist who, after our first session, told the doctors there was nothing wrong with me, and from the assessment he did, I definitely was not faking anything. Therefore, after this, they admitted me into the hospital for a month to be their mystery case and maybe have a great medical breakthrough for some unheard-of disease. I will spare you the long story, so in short, it turned out I had a very small hole in my heart that was causing me to faint as my heart was skipping beats and was reaching 300 beats per second, which was me hyperventilating. During my stay in the hospital in Italy, Sicily, a close friend of mine from the scouts gifted me a book, The Little Prince by Exupery. This book helped me through this difficult period, and it has become my favourite book of all time, marking the start of my reading journey. (I outgrew this over a decade ago, so I am fine now!)

Who first introduced you to books – parents, friends, teachers?Did you grow up around book lovers, or did you find a love of reading on your own?

The very first person to introduce me to books was my late maternal grandmother. She was an avid reader and wanted me to read more books, although at the time, I was not interested in books. I remember vividly how she was telling me about her favourite classics, such as The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas and Jane Austen; she was the only person from my family who loved reading.

Happy reading!