Interestingly enough, I *wasn't* reading before preschool.. my mother tells me she despaired of teaching me to read, which is part of why they skipped me past kindergarten to get a particular teacher (Mrs. Lewis usually taught Kindergarten, but that year there weren't enough kids that age so she taught first grade instead and was expected to go back to kindergarten the following year. I would have missed her if a couple of us hadn't skipped a grade and started first grade instead). I could read my name when I started first grade, and by sometime in second grade I was reading books that only had pictures at the beginning of chapters. In third grade I was well into science fiction novels, a habit reinforced by the Open School (http://aaopen.aaps.k12.mi.us/)'s permissive attitude toward letting kids read what they want.

So yeah, I was one of those kids who didn't start talking until I had figured out how to say complete sentences and (apparently) didn't start reading that early, but ramped up very fast.