Memories of reading
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spreading the word

2/12/2015

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Thank you to everybody who is sharing their memories of reading - so many wonderful memories are coming in that it is difficult to pick just one "Memory of the Month". So, in order to share more of them, I am putting together some vignettes or short quotes with images, so people can engage with the memories at a more visual level, and also to enable sharing across social media. This little extract illustrates to me how close we can be to books, and how we want to live with and inside them. Please do spread the word where and when you can. 
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memory of the month - february

2/7/2015

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It's #NationalLibrariesDay, so let's celebrate with a special Library Story!

From the 1970s

My Mother was a librarian and as a single parent she often had to take me to work during school holidays. My love of books started here I think. 
Not only did I become and avid reader but I learned how to look after the books making minor repairs and shelving. My favorite task was wiping over book covers with surgical spirit , you can imagine the grime that came with the many readers hands. 
When I was older my first Saturday job was working in the library, I had a head start on the other 14 year olds as my training had started early. I found other peoples reading habits fascinating. Pensioners loved Mills and Boon and Westerns and the children discovered Asterix and brought their friends to join the library to share the fun. During quiet periods I indulged my new found love for Stephen King.


Jo, 46

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Memory of the month - January

1/20/2015

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PictureImage with thanks from https://www.flickr.com/photos/glaesmann/
From the 1980s:

Tracey, age 33 and from Sheffield

My very first memory of reading was from when I was very small. I had just joined an infant school and, as part of our reading work, we were all taken out separately for a 1 to 1 session. I didn't like them much, they were boring. However, on one particular day, a teaching assistant came for me and we sat in the corridor outside the classroom. She directed me to a box of books and asked me to pick one, which I did. I then sat next to her and she turned the page.
"There's a blue sky and a squirrel...and the squirrel looks upset..." I delivered with the same matter-of-fact tone I always had in these sessions, 'reading' the story from the colourful pictures.
"No love," she stopped me, "this book has words...you have to read them." 
Wow! I was in awe. Books with words were so much more interesting to a five year old than books with just pictures. I suppose this was where my interest with the written word began.



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memory of the month - December

12/2/2014

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From the 2010s

My favourite story at the moment is 'An Enemy at Greenknowe' which is being read to me. I like the scary and sinister parts! It's got Tolly and Ping in it who are characters that I like. We haven't got to the end of it yet. It's mysterious and there's a cliff-hanger a the end of every page! A dead bat book makes a thud in a drawer, and a whole lot of flapping!

Katie, Age 7
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memory of the month - november

11/18/2014

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From the 1960s

After an overnight car journey from west London down the A roads to the end of Cornwall we arrived at Penlee Manor Drive. Needing to observe the niceties of arrival catch up on life since last summer took a few hours, delaying the much anticipated plan for the perfect holiday. Clutching her half a crown saved from pocket money, Janet finally set out on her own. Up the granite edged street, across the park, barely stopping to admire the walls of beautiful azaeleas in the tropical park, Janet walked purposefully on her solo mission. Her destination loomed into view. She pushed the heavy door of the Penzance library and entered the cool corridor to the heart of her desire. A HOLIDAY READER TICKET was soon obtained and the first trio of books, three Chalet School stories, by Elinor M. Brent Dyer, were tucked carefully under the nine year old's arm. The treasure gained, Janet returned to the family with her holiday happiness secured. Each day the Wilsons chose a different beach to visit and each day Janet selected another three books from the children's library, reading her way through the Billy Bunter and Jennings series, enjoying the sensation of being at boarding school without ever having entered one. Fifty years later this extravaganza of permitted indulgence in unrestricted reading is still a fondest memory of how to holiday and remains a goal for a future trip to anywhere with sunshine, a beach and a reading soundtrack of waves lapping gently on the shore.
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Memories of Reading event

11/10/2014

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On the 8th of November, approximately 400 people came to Weston Park Museum in Sheffield to join us for the Memories of Reading event. It was part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, and ran as one of a number of events organised by social science researchers at the University of Sheffield. For the whole day, visitors of any age could play games, crack codes, and share their stories. Particularly popular was the loom band table, where children used letter beads to make word and name loom bands, and the telegraph ticker, where everybody could try their hand at Morse code. The "Guess the Decade" game had literacy sources from the past 100 years which needed sorting according to decades - a football programme, a poster for the Titanic, a WW2 rations book, an etiquette guide, and a copy of Harry Potter were just a few of the resources that had people talking about reading through the decades. Below are just some of the pictures from the day - thank you to all parents who allowed us to share them with you! The day also gathered another 20+ "Memories of reading" for the research project - if you would like to add yours to the database, you can do so here.
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Memory of the month - october

10/28/2014

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From the 1980s:

"My first memory of reading is the book 'Walt and Pepper' by Lisl Weil. It had a huge effect on me. The next big literary moment I remember is reading George's Marvellous Medicine at age 7 whilst at school. I was in love with the story and the idea of concocting a potion in the bathroom. I experimented and decided I loved the effect of smoker's tooth powder with nail varnish remover. Unfortunately this disagreed with my Mum's best M&S beaker and I was banned from future bathroom experiments."
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    Welcome to the Memories of Reading Blog - here, we'll be sharing some of the stories you tell us, and will also keep you updated on how the research is progressing.

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