I remember the first book I read was a book at my Grandmother's house about a bunny. I was so proud of myself and felt so accomplished! As I grew older I read quite a lot even though our house really didn't have books in it. My favorite things to read were the "Anne of Green Gables" series. That book series really shaped my young life. I would read it and pretend I was "Anne" and would include my friends and sisters and then read it again. I loved the 'free' feeling I got when reading and when I was in high school I loved that my opinion, not the right answer was valued. Now I read to learn, such as ways to help my children, learn to cook, how to garden, and for enjoyment also. It's a nice little break from everyday thoughts and concerns.

I decided to interview my mother: She really likes to read to learn about household and farm things. "I want to spend my time reading as productive as I can. I'm really not into fiction." Her current interest is in raising angora goats, so she's been reading how-to books on that subject.

My mother's interest in "how-to" books really sparked my interest in reading to learn various skills. I'm really more of a novel reader but I noticed she was learning a lot of useful knowledge.

My husband likes to read to gain skills also. His "how-to" likes are: How-to be your own contractor, how-to trade in the stock market etc. He also like to read Westerns and Mystery novels. He reads these because he want to gain knowledge of a particular subject and reads the latter for a fun, relaxing escape. The books he reads are not what I would choose for myself but because they are in the house I do read them sometimes when I feel like a change. I learn things from those books and from being around him that I would not if he wasn't reading them.

My sister doesn't read much at all. If she does sit down to read she really like magazines about decorating. Her favorite is Country Living. She likes to read in short bursts, she has a 1 yr. old and 3yr. old, so she looks at the pictures and gets ideas for her own home and so on. I also like to read magazines and so we get the same one and even though she lives far away we can look at the same pictures and have fun talking about what we like and dislike.