I honestly don't remember not knowing how to read. I've always read anything that didn't read me first, and know where I got the habit. My mother read to me as a small child before tucking me into bed. She told me in later years I grasped the concept before I could actually do it - she'd fast forward through the story she was reading to get on to other chores, and I'd say "No, mommy! You missed this part!" and point unerringly at the spot she'd skipped over. (This had side effects in later years as I read well beyond my grade level starting in kindergarten...)

I tell people concerned about getting their kids to read to read to them when they are too young to do it themselves. I've seen too many people who never learned to see reading as fun. It's a chore they do because they have to, and turn to other things like TV as soon as possible. Give kids the idea that reading is fun and worth learning to do, and many problems go away.

My SO's nephews are an example. Their father read, and their mother didn't. Dad would come home from work and plunk himself down in front of the TV to wait for dinner. Guess what habits the kids picked up? (I watched his older son go into an alpha trance as soon as the TV was turned on.)

I'm sure I was the average age (between 4 and 6 I guess), but I've always loved books.
I read because I enjoy it. I read to escape reality for awhile.

[Anonyma'am]

Like iluvatar, I don't remember *not* reading. I used to read literally anything with print - bottles, medications, packaging, etc. My mom told me that when I was being potty-trained, she'd give me a book and I was quiet and...um...all went well. Then I'd get upset if she took the book away.

I read because I enjoy "experiencing" other places, points of view, people, animals, whatever. I love discovering something I didn't know before.

But I read slowly, sort of. I did OK with speed-reading, but found my enjoyment was reduced. So now I pretty much read as if I'm watching a movie in my head.

PS - I knew I found My Man when I realized he read books instead of magazines and we both belonged to the Science Fiction Book Club!

I honestly can't remember a time I didn't read. I grew up in a house full of books, my mum is an avid reader and would read to me before bed. She basically just let me loose in the library after school when I was a kid - it was practical a second home!

Books were read to me before I could read and I started picking up on reading myself at about 3. I really loved dinosaurs and wanted to learn everything about them, plus my aunt, mom and dad all had old books that were passed on to me, like Enid Blyton books, Nancy Drew, Chronicles of Narnia, you know, those really old kids and preteen books, and I was an extremely lonely and bullied kid so I got lost in books. I still have a taste for older works now, they just have this...nostalgic style of writing and art that newer books just can't seem to replicate.

At 20 got addicted...started reading 50 pages daily but now I've gone mad and i read 150-200 pages daily

i was a late reader, i guess. i was able to read at the age of 8, around year 2 of elementary school. it's was hard times... when everybody can read & you cant figure what's written.
i think that's what motivated me to read more. i often at the library during lunch time & early before class started. i read alot during middle school & it helps me with my english since it's not my mother tongue. my reading for pleasure after middle school was nearly nonexistent. not till i was in college that i went back to pleasure reading with harry potter. and here i am now.