But dinner in front of the TV was perfectly fine. Folding trays and everything. I'd be over on the couch behind my tray with a book open on the couch beside me.

I frequently got "stop reading and go outside and play," because my mother was pretty insistant on us getting some exercise every day. I'd usually just go read on a swing, or climb a tree and sit in the branches reading.

I was never told not to read. I was even allowed to stay up and read in my room until I fell asleep. I think mom figured I was unlikely to just drop off, and better to have me reading than tossing and turning. Reading at the table was no problem since I was an only latchkey kid, so no parent for dinner. Otherwise we were at the tennis courts where no one really cared what I did.

Funnily enough, I found book-a-thons counterproductive for my reading habits. I was fine when it was for my own pleasure, but I have a peculiar stubborn streak at times when someone else is trying to tell me what to do.

I was allowed to read at the table if I was eating by myself, but not at family meals.

I picked up love of books at home. Both my parents read a lot, and some of my earliest memories are of my mother taking me to the library, and the vaguely musty book-smell, and having to stand on tiptoe to place my books on the check-out counter.

My parents still don't like when we read at the table. Though I suspect newpapers might get a pass. Table's for either eating or talking. Growing up in Jamaica, eating in front of the TV wasn't really an issue. We did have one house in England with a TV in the kitchen, and that was tolerated.

We were never allowed to read at the table. It wasn't even an issue, or something I'd try to sneak by -- it was something that was just Not Done.

My mother doesn't even like us to do it now, when we're alone.

I hated read-a-thons too; you got sponsored for a certain amount per book, which favoured those who were still reading picture books over those of us who were reading 300-page novels! I always found that most unfair. And I resent to this day the idea that reading more = reading better.

I've been reading longer than I can remember. I got my first book of mythology when I was 4 (I think I still have it, but it's probably at mother and dad's place in the basement). I was on novels by the time I hit 5. Read Hitchhiker's Guide for the first time when I was 7 or 8.

My parents have no room to talk to me about how many books I have (I've never once been asked by anyone if I'd read all those books), as they have many, many more. Plus magazines. I expect the shelves to collapse at any time, based on the amount of sagging from overload. (They have pretty narrow interests, though, which is why I spent huge amounts of time reading natural history texts, science fiction, and nursing manuals before they started letting me choose my own books at the library.)

The only times I can recall being told not to read was when I was being punished for something. Long drives? Need me to be quiet? Hand me a book. Or two.

At no point growing up did I consider this unusual, which I suppose was a side benefit of being placed in the gifted and talented program with my fellow addicts. (Ah, the joys of trading books after class and learning ALL about sex through Piers Anthony's more adult works. Good times, good times.)