Personal Narrative: My Love Of Reading

Thanks to hours and hours of bedtime stories, I was able to read from the age of 3. In kindergarten I read to my classmates, and by second grade I was reading series like The Boxcar Children and Trixie Belden. Books allowed me to get lost in other worlds full of adventure and excitement. My love for what words can do has extended through high school. I pride myself on my book collection, anything from Hunger Games to The Picture of Dorian Gray. I’ve continued to read all the way through high school, some books four or five times because I love them so much.

Since 2013 when I started college, I have found a new hidden love. I love reading! I love how I’m able to pick up a book and just get lost in the reading. For that moment I don’t have a care in the world other than the material at hand. In my house I am constantly encouraging my children to read or be read to for at least thirty minutes a day. I would love them to experience a wide variety of genres, even if they sometimes disagree with a selection. Actually a majority of the time they end up enjoying the

When we were required to read books for school, other classmates complained about it, but it was one of my favorite parts of class. Even though I didn’t always like the books, I liked to read books that I wouldn’t have picked out to read. I liked being surprised when I enjoyed a book that I didn’t think I would like.

My love of reading blossomed when I was a child, because my parents showed me how wonderful reading is. There were countless nights when I remember myself as a little girl refusing to go to sleep before ‘tucking dad into bed’ by reading him a picture book. Not only did I uphold that tradition though, but my mother is a preschool teacher, so she gets really into reading out loud, and she would help me read books such as The Boxcar Children set, The Secret of NIMH and The Chronicles of Narnia weekly until I didn’t need help anymore.

My experiences as a writer have been both very engrossing and strenuous. I have learned a great quantity on both reading and writing, though, I continue to struggle on things that I have learned by this time, making the same mistakes that I do not even realize. Sometimes things are not so easy to understand when reading information, especially if the wording of an article is difficult for example. I love the idea of learning new things everyday. These past years as a writer have been very interesting, and I have learned and grasped many concepts I have been taught along the way.

In elementary school, I loved to read. Writing was not a big deal either due to the fact that we did not have to write four page essays. It was in first grade when I started to like reading. Reading has just been freshly introduced, considering we had only completed one year of school. My teacher always read to us and I wanted to read those books as well. Throughout elementary school I started to read Junie B. Jones books, which were my favorite. All of the books were about a first grade girl and her different adventures. I had always enjoyed reading those books. Each book had a different topic which I would always relate to in some way. Although I liked to read, I did struggle with reading comprehension which made me dislike writing as well. I hated having to read and then go and write about it. To this day, I still do not like reading comprehension, but my feelings toward reading and writing have changed.

It was once said that baseball is America’s greatest pastime. It dates all the way back to the 18th century, with a multitude of versions being played. Baseball is a game of intensity, athleticism, skill, and the mind. A lot of people have heard of baseball and have probably watched a game on TV, or at least part of a game. I however, would much rather be playing the game instead of watching it.

The teacher was very comical, and he would have reading days where he would read to the class and we were allowed to bring snacks. I looked forward to those days every week, because I had to know what would happen next. Another activity that developed my interest in literature would be the Summer Reading Program they offered at the library. The older you were, the longer the goal was of how many books you had to read and how good the prize was. I remember being so excited when I finally finished my list, and got to go turn it in. Also, I got my puppy that year and I tried to read as many puppy training books I could.

The first book I remember reading was Go Dogs Go by P.D. Eastman. I would read that book once a day with my mother, and never get tired of it. Then other books like The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who, and many other Dr. Seuss books came next. I couldn’t read enough of them growing up through kindergarten and first grade. Then all of a sudden I moved to Chelan and forced to read to meet my AR goal. Now, I am not trying to blame Accelerated Reader for my lack of motivation to read today, but I do believe it played a role in how I began to hate reading in elementary school.

First grade, after a long day of school and learning what the deal was with shapes, I come home and get to watch TV, no homework or worries (first graders with homework? Yeah right) then I eat dinner, and get ready for bed. My parents tuck me in and begin to read me a story from my favorite author at the time. Dr. Seuss. The rhyming and the pictures and the one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish. How does he come up with this stuff? Pure genius. Even after my parents turn off my room light, I sneak some light from my game boy and read more because I just can’t wait for the next night to read again. These were my first memories of reading and ever since then I try and recapture the feeling of pure bliss I had when I first heard my parents read to me just before bedtime.

5th grade, middle school at Riverdale. This is when I started taking the SRI, a reading comprehension test. Once my class completed the test we all compared our scores and I remember mine being lower than the rest of my classmates. It was my first time taking it so I gave myself the benefit of the doubt, thinking next time I’ll be right up there with my classmates. A few weeks later we took it again. Once again we shared our results and my score was still lower than theirs. This time I told myself that I’d never be at the same level as my classmates.

My earliest experience with reading and writing were traumatizing especially when I was in the first grade. I still recall the experience I went through to this day. It made me really hate myself because the other kids were making fun of me.

When I was in kindergarten, I could “read” the Lorax, well not read more memorized the Lorax. I had trouble reading, but when I was halfway through second grade something clicked, and I was reading Harry Potter like it was nothing. Then I was reading the Hobbit as well like it was nothing, then the Odyssey by homer translated into English by third grade I would later finish it in fifth

Although reading literature when being forced and for educational purposes has withered my once love of reading, I can still vividly remember where my love of reading began. My comfy living room couch holds my

Through the years of elementary school, I excelled in reading because of the comprehension I had and my love for books. We were always required to read a book, because we needed a certain amount of accelerated reading points each month. My favorite books were Junie B. Jones and Captain Underpants. I enjoyed reading during these years because it came natural to me and I admired the fictional aspects of books and the way they could make my mind run wild. The teachers I had I credit some of my success to because they helped me succeed in reading during elementary school.