Using methods from conversation analysis, this microethnographic longitudinal case study traces the development of interactional competence which results from adult learners' socialization into literacy events in a modified Sustained Silent Reading (mSSR) program. The investigation focuses on two learners who participated in the mSSR program in an ESOL classroom at an adult community college for three terms. The findings show how the two learners (with different first language educational backgrounds) follow different paths in acquiring interactional competence, moving from peripheral to more engaged participation in classroom literacy events through their socialization into three of these events: book selection, opening post-reading re-tellings, and completing and filing reading logs.