Explain Why I Want To Be A Reader

Carr went on farther, saying that he cannot read as long as he used to, his concentration starts to wonder after two or three pages. He states, “he began to get fidgety and lose his focus and start looking for other things to do.”

This statement really resonates with me. I am fully unable to understand many things if I only read them one time. The first time I read over to get the "gist" of the text. On my second reading, I skim the text a bit more quickly and pull out sentences that don't make much sense to me and I analyze them more in depth. This helps me a whole heck of a lot to better understand what I am reading.

The article The Death of Reading is Threatening the Soul by Philip Yancey focuses on how many people are no longer “deep reading” and instead are reading “fewer of the [types] of books that require hard work” (Yancey 1). This is because the brain experiences a dopamine rush that occurs “when we learn something quick and new” (Yancey 2). Yancey agrees with many other intelligent, well-known people who stress the need to read many books or book pages daily. He adds that they acknowledge that it’s “beyond reach for [everyone] but [a] few people” so there’s no reason not to partake in the goal, especially since it is extremely beneficial (Yancey 3). Yancey describes reading lots of books has helped unleash his creativity and diminish his writer’s

What goes through your mind when you read? Do you read deliberately, looking for certain aspects, or do you read as a blank slate? When reading, professors expect a deliberateness that will help you to uncover meanings that are not readily apparent. Thomas C. Foster in his book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” expands on this concept. He endeavors to instruct his readers in the way he believes they should read, in order to get the most out of each book. He concedes that, “When lay readers encounter a fictive text, they focus, as they should, on the story and the characters” but to truly read like a professor you must also divert a portion of your attention on

At this point in my life I find myself in an interesting predicament regarding my attitudes toward reading and writing; more so towards reading. Years ago I used to love reading books for pleasure but nowadays I find myself reading things that little to no effort to digest. This includes the very basic posts on facebook expressing one’s opinion on something or articles and threads on reddit discussing topics I find intriguing. Perhaps it’s the severe senioritis that has overcome me as I enter my last semester at Chapman University. As I’ve gotten lazier I can see it start to reflect in my everyday life. Deep down I still love to read but I rarely find myself getting truly invested into the action unless it relates to something I am very

McCullough believes that if the average person were to read for four hours a day instead of watch television, then they could read all of T.S. Eliot’s poems; complete poems of Maya Angelou; two of Thornton Wilder’s plays, along with Our Town; read The Sound and the Fury and The Great Gatsby by Faulkner; along with The Book of Psalms, all in one week.

As a child, I read non-stop. I used to spend entire nights reading, so much so that by the age of 9, I had developed grey circles under my eyes, which I wore like a badge. In school, I would use every free second I had to get just a little closer to finishing whatever book I had on hand. Ms. Carpenter, who always seemed as though she didn’t like teaching very much, frequently yelled at me for keeping my books on my desk so I could get to them quicker whenever I finished my classwork. She insisted that they were a distraction. But I always had a book to read, because every Friday each class walked in a neat line

There is no doubt that we are quickly learning to read in a way so that we find only the information that is pertinent to us. Skimming is our way of adapting to the technology in front of us. According to Carr, reading nonlinearly and skimming greatly reduces our ability to think deeply. Carr argues that “What the Net diminishes is [Samuel] Johnson’s primary kind of knowledge: the ability to know, in depth, a subject for ourselves, to construct within our own minds the rich and idiosyncratic set of connections that give rise to a singular intelligence” (Carr, 143). Carr is right about skimming; when reading over something quickly we do not process what we are reading. There is no way for us to think critically about the piece we are reading without knowing all aspects of the text. We miss pieces that could give us a greater understanding. These are the reasons why we are going to lose the ability to read linearly and think deeply about the things we read.

Despite me disliking reading and writing, these past 3 semesters of college I have done more reading than I did my entire high school career. At times when reading, I will find myself reading the same paragraph five times because I keep distracting myself while reading. This also led to me not understanding the text. I had to find ways to read more efficiently. I researched ways to improve reading skills. While researching, the technique that helped most was highlighting important points in my readings. I have not reread a single paragraph out of being distracted since. I also find it much easy to understand and follow text by reading summaries prior. I may not excel in reading and writing but I am much more proficient in it. Being literate in reading and writing has helped me become more literate in many other areas in

During our recent winter break, I started reading as many novels, novellas, and biographies that piqued my interest. Once I sat down, curled up on the couch, I would start a story and wouldn’t stop reading until I was done, whether the book was 80 pages or 573 pages. Even if the book was horrible, I would still finish what I started. Although I’m concentrating on college and succeeding, I’m falling in love with reading again. Just during our winter break, I read over fifty novels, biographies, and novellas ranging from science fiction, paranormal romance, history, and classical horror

When I was younger, I would read book after book. I would get through multiple series and have fun while doing so. Ever since I’ve gotten to know more about the internet, and since it has impacted my education, this has changed. We use technology to write papers, research topics, or to do our homework. But, while doing so, we tend to wander and do other things too, such as play games or go on social media. Ever since the internet and all that it has to offer has come into my life, my ability to read long books has changed. In junior year of high school I assigned to read 20 to 30 pages everyday out of my book for the AP U.S. History course I was taking. When I would sit down to read these set of pages every day, I would feel as if it were a chore, as if reading had now become a chore for me. In addition, my attention span while reading those pages would decrease the more I read. The further into the pages I got, the more distracted I got. The internet took a hold of me and has changed my way of thinking just like the millions of others that use

Many people have never considered, in-depth, the idea of what makes a good reader. Surface level first idea that pops into many people's’ heads is someone who can read fast and understand the text. In reality, the definition is debatable and much more complex. Being able to define a good reader allows for us to have a goal or guideline of what we, as individual readers, should be doing or striving to do. Some view a good reader as someone who can analyze and really dig into the text, while others argue that the reader should really have a passion for reading and enjoy the text.

Concluding, Bell reminds readers that speed-reading is not just about reading faster, but about having control. He also reminds that it takes time and effort to learn but practice is

In today's society a plethora of information is immediately available at the touch of a button, and long gone are the days of careful hours spent scouring through a library for information. In "How to Read a Book" author Mortimer Adler points out that this ease of access to information has turned the masses into inattentive readers. In the first chapter, "The Activity and Art of Reading" Adler distinguishes between different types of reading such as active vs. inactive reading and goals that should be associated with reading such as reading for information and reading for understanding. In the latter chapter he goes on to point out how to be a successful and demanding reader through critical reading and asking oneself questions about the text.

The more I was being forced to read, the less time I spent reading for enjoyment, until eventually I no longer spent any of my free time with a novel in hand. Reading became a chore; it became boring. Sometimes the simple act of being forced to do something makes you despise it. As a child, I enjoyed several different genres of novels and many different topics intrigued me, so it wasn’t necessarily what I was reading that disinterested me. One required novel I remember reading was The Outsiders in seventh grade. This was a type of book I feel I would normally enjoy because of the mystery and action; however, I couldn’t bring myself to truly become engaged in this novel. Reason being-it was a forced act, with multiple worksheets and homework to accompany the reading. Fast forward to high school when I’m reading my required lengths in an anatomy and physiology textbook. Science has always been an interest of mine; in fact, I’m now majoring in Human Physiology. Yet reading this text wasn’t something I enjoyed. Again, because it felt forced; it was not something I was doing simply out of interest. This is how I continue to feel about most of the reading I do today as a college student.