Abraham Lincoln became a voracious reader. He read every book and newspaper he could find. To remember important passages, he copied them onto wooden shingles due to a scarcity of paper, memorizing them or saving the shingles for later transcription.
His father disapproved, fearing reading would "spoil him for work." However, Abraham completed more chores than his father, and his stepmother defended his right to read at home. She recalled, "We would just let him read on and on till he quit of his own accord."
Lincoln maintained scrapbooks on shingles and paper, collecting poetry, history, witty sayings, and fine passages. He even had one for arithmetic, which survives with a boyish rhyme scrawled beneath a weights and measures table.
With lamps and candles scarce, he often read, wrote, and did sums by flickering firelight, lying on his stomach before the large hearth. His cousin, John Hanks, remembered that after a day of barefoot labor, Abraham would take a piece of corn bread, sit with his long legs propped up, and "read, and read, and read" whenever he had a chance.
Once, he borrowed a famous book, Weems's "Life of Washington," from a neighbor, Mr. Crawford. He stored it on a shelf, but it fell through a crack in the wall during a rainstorm and was soaked into near pulp. The cranky Mr. Crawford demanded that Abraham "work the book out." The boy agreed and paid for the damaged book by pulling fodder for the cattle for three days. Thus, Abraham Lincoln purchased his first book.