I grew up in a military family. One of the great joys of this is that we lived overseas for several years. We didn't watch TV for two reasons. 1) The console television my family owned wouldn't work and 2) nothing was in English. I didn't actually see television until we returned to the states right before I started Kindergarten (the first image I remember is a snowy image of Archie and Jughead but that's a story for another day). As a result, I remember my mom and dad reading a lot of books. I wasn't reading age yet but I had a lot of picture books. My grandfather even sent me story records with books to go along with them. (For those born in the 80's or later, records are not giant CDs)

To answer the question, my mom is an avid but slow reader. She didn't find out she had dyslexia until she was in her late 30s but has always pushed to read. She's big on Christian mystery and biographies. My dad is the biggest reader I know. He loves mysteries but is completely absorbed in biblical based non-fiction works. He's mission is to completely understand the Bible - or at least the best that he can before he leaves this earth. My brother, he reads but I couldn't tell you what any of it is. My Dad and Brother are those annoying people that remember every thing they every read in great detail. Oh how I've wished for my entire life I could do that. I actually hated reading growing up. I was behind everyone else in reading. I only read a handful of books in school and all of those were required reading. It wasn't until after I had my first son that I found out how much I loved getting lost in the pages of books.

As for my children, they're a mixed bag. My youngest loves books. He doesn't so much love reading as he loves the feel, smell, and sound of opening a book. He reads for fun when it's something he truly is interested in. i.e. Star Wars books, historical and scientific stuff) My middle son is of the opinion "why read they're going to make a movie out of it someday". This makes a mother so proud. He's a smart kid but he despises reading entirely with the exception of MySpace or Facebook. My oldest son is my favorite when it comes to reading. (I know. You aren't suppose to have favorites but I do when it comes to certain things. Each of them are my favorite in something but I don't tell them that) Chris has had more obstacles in his life than anyone person should and they all started before he was even born. I won't go into them all right now but they built up barriers that made learning difficult for him. He however is the strongest person I know and has pushed himself to get through it all. That being said, he hated reading until high school. He was placed in a beta program to improve reading skills. It worked and he started to read things for fun. WOW! Does a mother's heart good. He reads mostly nonfiction, fact books about nature and some history stuff. He's very politically and ecologically minded.

That's it in a nutshell. We all read and even the one who fights it will read on occasion. The last couple years I've realized that either reading is really catching on and the people I am around read a lot or that I've never paid attention and they've always been reading. Either way I love it and love sharing what I've been reading and what other's have been reading. I like the make believe worlds I can get lost in.