Personal Narrative: How Reading Changed My Life

By doing this, the author made the book less enjoyable so I did not want to keep reading like I do with other books. Reading this book became more of a task rather than a

As I got older my reading habits decreased mainly due to participation in athletics and socializing with friends became my main priorities. The only time I picked up a book at this particular time was when it was assigned to read a novel in school in order to write a book report. One of the books I read in class was “To Kill a Mocking Bird,” by Harper Lee. I wasn’t very motivated to read it but did because it was required.

I was not really into reading at the time, but I remember that my teacher made us read for at least fifteen minutes at the beginning of every class. If we did not have a book there were many books from her library to choose from. I believe this was one of the first books that I read in her class, and think I chose this book in particular because it stood out. I mean the title itself already piqued my interest. I honestly did not think that I was going to enjoy it as much as I did, It was such a bizarre read with all the strange events and abnormal characters. And in a weird way, the strangeness of the story was what I really liked. I do not think I would have liked it as much if it was not for that. It was one of the first chapter books that I did not have to force myself to finish. This was also one of the first books I read that really got me into loving to read. I just loved getting lost in another world and I wanted to keep reading books that did that for me.

Mrs.Delkamp would send home one beginner book each night. A few weeks went by and I started getting two books a night and my friends still had one. At parent-teacher conferences my parents were told that I needed more practice reading. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, I was five and I loved to read the books to my parents.

To me this book was pretty boring at the beginning. I figured it would just be for the extra credit and that it didn’t really matter if I read closely and reread pages. However, after reading maybe 30 pages I was really drawn in and was fascinated with the premise of this book(I didn’t know what the book was about prior to reading it.) Now I don’t want to give any spoilers, and I encourage you to read this book, but I think that everyone should know the literary value of this book.

The characters in this book were so good. The Blackthorn family were so tight and lovely. Honestly, *behind the Weasleys* the Blackthorns are one of my favorite book families. Also, I can't express how thorough the plot was. The entire book was planned very well, and I am EAGERLY waiting for the next book. It was just SO GOOD.

My earliest memories of reading start when my mom sent me to Christians studying school at six years old and the mentor would read out a handbook on heroes

When it appeared in my PO Box, I started to read it straight away. And once I started I could not stop. The plot is addicting, when you start reading and you will not be able to put the book down.

I started to read at a young age and it never really came that easy to me. I struggled a little bit more with understanding some words and even some questions I couldn’t answer them because when I would read and even till this day I start to read, but I don’t fully pay attention to my reading. It’s not because I don’t like reading I enjoy it. When I was in the fifth grade I joined “Book Club” it was year round and a few times a week. Once I was in the book club I enjoyed reading more and because it was fun either the people or myself taking turns and doing voices for the characters. I kept reading for a few more years and then I stopped for a couple of years. I got back into reading when I was a sophomore and a big part of it was because that

I devoured the books. The first three books each took me a day to read. The rest took a little longer, but not much. I had a deadline. Perhaps, if I finished by my 11th birthday, I’d get my letter. Perhaps, if I practiced the spells enough, they would work. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps if I knew everything about the wizarding world it would be real. There would be magic.

At nine years old, I finished the book in a day and was hooked. Since the opening line of the first book I was on a long and magical quest. “A quest is often, among other things, an extended bout of inspired madness.” (Chabon) From the foreboding songs of the Sorting Hat to the hijinks perpetrated by the Weasley twins, I fell in love with the Wizarding World. The weeks and months that followed were a whirlwind of trips to the school library during recess and nights spent reading by the glow of my dog-shaped flashlight. That was roughly the point in my life that I realized that good people in books could die: Dobby, Professor Dumbledore, Lupin, and Sirius each broke my heart. It had literally never occurred to me that characters (and actual people) I loved and cared about could perish. Up until that point, death in my stories was either widely avoided or only happened to the villains, the anti-heroes, and the evil queens of stories. Harry Potter was also one of the first times I had the realization that people were not all ethical or all evil. Snape, while at times was aggressive and had questionable motives, died for the benefit of the Wizarding World. Dumbledore was wise and empathetic, but had a dark history and was deeply selfish. These lessons have stuck with me for the last seven years, and I made a point of rereading the books whenever I was in a bit of a lull between

My past with reading and writing has not been a constant thing, I’ll admit. Growing up, the word reading would be met with a consistent groan by most of my family. Writing would probably hold a worse reaction, but no one in my family really wrote beyond the grocery list. When I was young, my favorite books were either the short informational books about animals, or the Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black and Tony Diterlizzi (I never read them, just looked at the pictures). The best thing about books was being able to leave class to go to the library and get read to. Books just weren’t very important to me, or anyone I knew.

I had already seen all of the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies, so at that point, I had wanted to read the books. At first, I didn’t know if I wanted to read all of them or not, because they were pretty big books. After a while, I had finally decided to read them. They are really good books and I wish there was more series like that. I started to read when I was about 3. I was at the store with my baby-sitter, then all of a sudden, I started to read the ingredients on the side of different boxes, she was really

The thing a found very interesting in the book was the setting of the Wizard town, Diagon Alley. How they describe the town's environment in detail. The colorful town with many different unique shops. One part that I notably liked was when Harry went to the bookshop for magic. Harry entered the store and saw “The monster book of monsters”, the funny thing about these books is that they were real monsters.

My journey with Harry starts before I could even read. When Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published, I wasn’t even one, but my mum’s work colleagues were reading it to their kids, so my mum read it to me.