How did your journey as a reader begin?

I've had this question on my mind for a while now. I've noticed that the majority of people I know who are book-lovers have a history behind their passion: that when they were young, someone--whether it's a parent, older relative or awesome librarian--inspired them to pick up a novel that changed their worlds and set them on the lifelong path of reading. Then there are stories of people having their reading habits nurtured from a young age with bedtime stories, weekend trips to the library or having an allowance set apart just to buy books. I listen to these stories with wistfulness because I never had any of these things happen to me.

I'm not even sure where my love of books came from; I'm thinking it must be a recessive gene because my parents were not avid readers. I've searched back through all of my memories and I honestly cannot draw up any where I see either my mother or my father holding a book and reading it for entertainment. What I do get are hazy memories of my father reading the newspaper and more distinct memories of my mother sifting through all of the advertisements we get in the mail to clip coupons. But I know that ever since I was able to form coherent thoughts and retain memories, I have always gravitated towards books. I remember pestering my parents to take me into Barnes & Noble whenever I spotted one, making puppy eyes* whenever we were visiting my family to go to a kiosk where they sold books or begging to be driven to the library just because**. I don't think my parents completely understood my addiction but they respected it enough to indulge me (most of the time, anyways) and they knew that a trip to the bookstore was like Christmas. Every single time.

So I ask you: how did your journey as a reader begin? There isn't any set point in my life where my journey began--as far as I can remember, I've always loved books and that's the way it'll always be. And in the future, I hope to instill this love and respect of literature in my children. I will also most definetely be reading them bedtime stories and taking weekend trips to the library. I didn't really have that as a kid so I'm not depriving my future child(dren) of these experiences!

I'm not giving this back, you know.

*I still do this whenever I'm visiting my family.
** I...still do this too. Old habits die hard.