Questions On Reading And Writing

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

Ever since I was in elementary school, I have had a strong fascination with literature. Overtime, I had a plethora of books lining my bookcases and barely had room for any more. Reading was a necessity to me and it still is to me today. I eat, sleep, and breath literature because I feel like it’s essential to my academic career. Literature does many wonderful things like, teach me about life lessons, transport me to a new world that I have only dreamed about going to, and discover new vocabulary.

Throughout my years of schooling, I have become ambivalent about reading and writing. I have struggled in school to make myself enjoy writing. I didn’t mind reading as much, as long as it was to my interest. It has differed throughout the years I have been in school. Some years I have enjoyed both, reading and writing, and other years I have not liked either. Getting myself to enjoy reading and writing has been quite the adventure.

During most my high school career, I had to read books for English class. Although most of the time i did not care to read books for school, they helped me expand my vocabulary and improve my writing skills. The books also helped me realize how difficult writing is and how many meanings the writing can have. My least enjoyable reading experience was when I had to read Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The book was very confusing and difficult to understand. Even though this poor reading experience helped me to improve as a reader, it encouraged me to read difficult

I haven't always been keen on reading as I am today. I can’t really remember the reason for my distaste in literature, but I think it mostly came from me just thinking that reading was too difficult or I was just me being a stubborn six year old not wanting to do it, but none the less I was like this for a lot of my earlier years. I was able to read a small amount of text because my parents teaching me, using Doctor Seuss books like Cat and the Hat and One FIsh Two Fish Red Fish Blue FIsh as learning tools to help me become more fluent. I never really understood reading until my stepmom moved in with us. Since my sister and I were still very young

I’ve always been an avid reader. When I was in elementary school, my mother would take my brother and I to the library every week to pick out books. I would take the books to school and read them all in one day. I loved reading so much that my teachers would call home and tell my parents that I was reading my library books during class instead of my textbooks. Reading has always been a major part of my life. I used to aspire to become an author. I even wanted to become an editor at one point. I used to make daily household newspapers and magazines for my entire family to read and enjoy. My strong love for reading certainly came in handy during my freshman year of high school.

Reading was the new outlet for my imagination and the stories I read fascinated me. They weren’t too unlike the scripts of computer games or the own stories I came up with on my own, but books actually had the action and emotional aspects written out. And again, while my peers were reading things about growing up, things that had morals and would teach valuable lessons (I remember one book about a shoplifter who had to do community service at an animal shelter), I read real fiction: Jurassic Park, Dragonriders of Pern, Lord of the Rings… Stuff of fantasy and science-fiction that let my mind stray from reality. Stuff that kept my imagination alive while I was being forced to learn multiplication and the names of countries. Of course, my teachers encouraged me to keep reading, as long as I wasn’t doing the reading in the middle of their lectures. But it wasn’t because of their influence, however, that kept me interested in books. It was because I loved it. It put pictures into my head and made me think. So I kept reading. But even then I knew reading wasn’t enough… Yes, the stories were fascinating, but they weren’t what I wanted. Back then I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but as middle school came to a close, I found it.

I never had a passion to read when I was younger in grade school. I never liked to read, unless it was any of the “Black Lagoon” books then you had my full attention, and if it wasn’t any of those I would not read it for anything. All I wanted was to read those books, and I am pretty sure I read almost all of them I liked them so much. I especially did not like reading when teachers would make us read at night and fill out a reading chart to go along with it and would make our parents sign it so they made sure that we really did read everyday. It was pure torture for me. I dreaded the reading. My teachers even gave us prizes and treats for reading at home and I still did not want to read. One year I did not tell my mom that I had a reading log and was required to

Sometimes all it takes to turn the person who hates to read, into the person who loves to read. I know that this has been the case for me at least. When I was a child I hated to read more than anything, but over time I learned to appreciate it more and more. I believe that there are three authors, who were able to influence a young child who hated to read, and created a young adult who doesn’t mind reading and on occasion does it for fun. Those three authors are Gary Paulsen, John Flanagan, and Stephen Hunter.

Even today when browsing for an interesting read I would always be taken away by some captivating picture of an article. However, the more I read the better I became at understanding and visualizing a narrative. This piloted me towards thicker books where stories were more enjoyable and longer.I was in my school’s book club. We had to read three selected books and compete with another school’s club to discern which team understood the books to a greater extent. It was quite embarrassing because I didn’t answer any of the questions right about the books even though I’ve read it. This led me to realize that books were more than just a mere combination of words. This was when writing and reading became difficult for me. I was abruptly introduced to the literary elements of plot, theme, and tone of literature. The more I knew the more I would have to learn. This is something I would come to understand as I was presented figurative language, irony, and foreshadowing. These being literary techniques brought me closer to the understanding of my own literary

I hated to read. Anytime my high school teachers would assign a book to read in our class I would dread it. All through my freshman, sophomore, and junior year, I felt this way. Trying to read a whole book without feeling that the book was distant to the life I lived or had no existing presence in the world I lived in was my main struggle. When I entered into my senior year I was enrolled in a literature course, which I vowed to use Sparknotes to parlay myself forward. Surprisingly, when I now recall my senior year, that became my favorite class in that final year.

Isn’t it awful being forced to read long, drawn-out books in school, only to find that they’re boring and irrelevant? Most teenagers, including myself, can relate that when it comes to forced reading in teen literature, most of the books are more of a burden than enjoyable. When in the process of reading unwanted books, it’s almost as if instead of appreciating and grasping the author’s writing, we’re skimming through as fast as possible in order to get an A. Personally, I felt like in school there were lists after lists of tiresome stories that weren’t any fun to read, that was, until I read Harper Lee’s most famous book. Deserving all the hype it gets, To Kill a Mockingbird is a heartfelt text about a young girl’s childhood who, at only six

Or it stems from being forced to do unreasonable things pertaining to the book. If the people in the class where asked about what book they wanted to read, they would be more inclined, instead of being forced to read a book. Being forced to read kills the drive to read said book. In my mind that is one way to bring back the love for the purest form of literacy, reading. The other way to bring back the thirst for reading; especially me; is to read stories of people now, instead of having our kids read about someone who is our age in school. If we study people who aren’t dead, it brings with a connection the world that other dead authors didn’t have. The writer of the Scarlet Letter was not born in the time period he wrote about but even he, would be surprised at the women of our current generation. Times are no longer the same as they were then, or later, I cannot connect to that. I get bored trying to figure out what the big deal is about the charcters in the story. I cannot relate to the issues they have in my current life. Life is always changing and evolving so I believe the wirtings in school should change too, not regress into the clonial era. The colonial era should never leave the history class, unless someone can relate to, or has an interest in. As a

At this point in my life, reading would definitely not make a list of my favorite things to do, but this wasn’t always the case. Some of my youngest memories involve reading, and many of these memories are enjoyable. Every night before bed my mom would read to me, and I remember begging to read just one more before she tucked me in almost every night. This is when my love for reading sparked. Throughout grade school, I continued to read frequently and never found it to be a chore; however, once middle school hit I no longer included reading as a past time or found it pleasurable. Looking back now I realize this was when English class included more forced literature, and school consisted of reading extensive pages in textbooks. Reading

As a child, my interests were more focused on reading than writing. In elementary school I fell in love with books. Initially I read simple children’s books, much like everybody else in my class, but it did not take long for my passion to drive me to read more difficult writings. Fiction books quickly became a replacement for any childhood toys. Instead of blocks or stuffed animals I would ask my parents for books. Since they were aimed at young readers, they tended to be short. I found myself going through them within days, and then soon several hours. Towards the end of elementary school I was reading series like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. I was captivated, and reading truly opened up a whole new world for me.