DD was the one who memorized books. When she was 3, she wowed my parents by reciting The Night Before Christmas. She didn't learn to read on her own, but when she was three she begged me to teach her. I used Hooked on Phonics and she caught on very quickly. I think we skipped level one, really worked on level two, and then suddenly levels 3-6 were trivially easy. She has had her nose buried in books ever since. smile