I used to watch anime then started reading mangas since I found anime too time consuming. Then, suddenly, someone tells me they find mangas time consuming?? I was then introduced to wattpad by them. My first reads were....very cringe. Rather not share. Than I somehow found my way to novels. Not wattpad books. I never really had any accounts on novel sites and most the novels I read have been forgotten. It was not until late 2020 or 2021 that I registered on several sites, but I never really used said sites, Untill 2022..lol
I always liked reading. Alot of young children do. Many gradually reduce it as they get older. Maybe I would have ended up the same, but I really got addicted in 3rd grade when I had to read 30 or 40 novels in two months. I was reading at every spare moment, while walking, while using toilet, etc. My team lost in the competition because of blatant cheating that the judges straight up ignored. The unfairness of it stung for a long time. I had a compulsion to read whenever possible from then on. It's gotten less in the past years. I mainly used the libraries. But my parents limited how many books I could take at a time, would confiscate them as punishment, and were lazy about going back, sometimes only dropping off books from the car without letting me have a few minutes to pick up new ones, and refusing to go back for weeks. Pain. My first ever internet search after getting my first personal computer, was for novels. Because I needed more. (addict.) Also I couldn't think of anything else, my exposure to internet was small before that point. Read a lot of random free original English novels (lots of cool ones out there, was interesting because they could each be so very different from each other, unlike the Young Adult novels of the library), translated novels, manga, etc. Ended up on novelupdates eventually.
Most households didn't have the internet until I was a teen. I didn't really bother with it until I was in my mid-late teens and even then I still preferred socializing irl up until my late 20s basically. Reading, gardening and sports were my main activities since I was a kid. I like the internet because I can read as much as I want about however I want. Very convenient.
I started reading books because we had to in our library class, then I found the stories very interesting so I continued. I lover paperbacks but sadly after covid I couldn't read it and I didn't like reading books online, so I switched to online novels. Novels here were very different from the English ones and some genres were new to me, it was like a new world was opened to me. But I read more manhwa than novels. Anyway I love stories so it doesn't matter~ but still prefer them on paper~
Looking at the poll results... Right now, 0 votes for No. I mean...it's a forum about novels to say the least I started reading out of curiosity + boredom... Always bored of reality and life, so I was consuming tons of books, movies, TV series, anime and manga. And suddenly, I found out this manga was based on a novel, so I was like, why not, let's read the source and get some sweet spoilers. And from Japanese to Korean, from Korean to Chinese, I'm now mainly reading Chinese novels. And they've taken over. I might watch something, anything, once ina blue moon. Hardly ever read manga... Just novels. Well, sometimes I might spice it up by reading Korean webtoons. Like a webtoon spurt every 3-4 months.
When I was a kindergartener, I somehow like to read picture books and stories in kids magazine. From there, I started to read novels written by kids(<11 yo). I also started to read comics and mangas. When I was 9 or 10, I finished my first "heavy" and "long-length" novel. The Da Vinci Code. And I'm still a fan of the series to this day btw. Then my transition to digital is also Da Vinci Code series I think. I want to read the other series and in the original English, so I looked up the pdfs(yeah that illegal thing) and read them with my laptop. Then light novels. Specifically SAO and Mahouka. Those were hit back then, so when everyone still clamoring over the animes I looked up the novels(also pdf). And for full fledged web novel thing, I think it's started with Novel's Extra or Solo Leveling. I don't really remember well although it's only 4 years ago. I read them in mirroring sites since I didn't know where they come from originally. After that I also read Chinese web novels on the same site and somehow found my way to NU. Currently I'm settled in Korean web novel apps, scrolling through pages directly with phone or tab
My girlfriend got me hooked, I didn't understand what the point of these novels was. But then my friend gave me the book and I had to read it. To my surprise I liked it, that's how I fell in love with novels.
I was reading the Webtoon of 'The Remarried Empress' and heard there was a novel. Fell in love... Then came my addiction.
When I was young (grade 6 I think) I saw one of my classmates reading a book. I've learned it was a published book of a wattpad stories and got curious then download the app. Since then, I started reading novels until I discovered anime and manga/hwa/hua... Whenever I learned the manga/hwa/hua I've been reading has a novel, I'll switched to it bcs sometimes the updates are slow, and I want to read more of it
I was encouraged to read books as a kid though, but I eventually find it compelling. And If I get it right, horror genre was the first book I read. Ghost thingy ~ xD