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Comment by Isamu | Hacker News Reader

>a chief factor seems to be the household one is born into, and the culture of reading that parents create within it.

Aye, my mother regularly took us to the biggest public library within driving distance. Every few weeks. And we didn't just grab and go, we would spend some time browsing the stacks.

As her mother did before her. It was inexpensive entertainment for those that weren't well off.

I developed very wide interests in everything imaginable, just from stumbling upon really good books.

Mind you though, I didn't develop an appreciation for fiction for a long time. To some, "readers" are those who are always reading fiction.

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Aside from having literally a room or two full of books at home, the regular trip to the library was literally a highlight of my childhood. Piling up the books to take back, and then running around and choosing a new stack to take out, it was a great time.

It's literally free entertainment for children that lets them effectively supervise themselves, and god knows as a parent one can use entertainment for young children.

Plus its an actual constructive skill.

We live in the time with the most access to the most information available and almost no one wants it. I'm constantly blown away that the default position isn't: "Why isn't the human race just constantly reading?".

Even with all of the content of the Internet, I often still look for a book when I'm digging into a new topic and need to be shown the basics A-Z. It's just too hard to get a complete picture from the tiny snippets people organized for free online. Books paid someone to write something with a specific audience in mind. Often, for things like gardening or pottery, a recent book isn't necessarily more relevant than an old book. Libraries are amazing for things like this.

This just brought a big ass smile to my face! Some of my fondest childhood memories are of my dad rolling out of the local library with a six foot tall stack of hardcovers... if I recall the library had a checked out limit of a dozen titles and he took full advantage, so I’d have to help him carry them out to the car :)

> Aye, my mother regularly took us to the biggest public library within driving distance. Every few weeks. And we didn't just grab and go, we would spend some time browsing the stacks.

I have very fond memories of spending time at the library growing up. My mom is an avid reader. I just never picked it up. I remember as a kid thumbing through mostly reference books to imagine up projects I didn't have the money or resources to carry out. Maybe I just never got into fiction and reference books were only as-needed?

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