Reading And Reading : My Relationship With Literature

I strongly believe when some people grow up they lose interest in reading books, you can see the many people that don’t like reading in our schools, because most of us are on our phones and reading articles. I mainly read on my phone and I enjoy that more because the articles are short and to the point quicker. Phones have changed on how much I value actual books.

Some fall in love with literature early in life and continue a deep passion for it throughout time. I on the other hand cannot say the same. When I began reading like most it was simple works intended for young minds, often those types of reading lack much substance and I lacked interest. Later, I began to enjoy books that the mind to different places. I began to have an interest in dystopian fiction.

If I could describe my relationship with reading and writing it would most likely have to be, improving. Of course I would assume the same happens to all students that their reading and writing skills improve as they continue with their education. For me reading has been a passion, so my reading skills are pretty advanced and I can say I am able to read well. In my case, being a child of two Hispanic parents, I do have a slight accent that can get in the way and make my reading a bit rough. Usually it is not so bad, only on certain words that either I do not know how to properly pronounce or certain letters that my accent acts as a physical barrier where I have to sound it out more carefully or work around my accent. While that is the #1 major setback I have during reading. Even with that setback I can still say that I am confident in my reading skills, reading at a well speed, improving, reading various books all that combined allows to be able to read almost anything. What I do enjoy about reading is that I see it being able to bring myself into that world that the author is writing about or to envision the story they’re telling as a movie. I like the idea of just sitting back or laying down with a good book for hours and getting deep into whatever I am reading. Personally once I pick up a good book it is usually hard for me to put it down without the paranoia of not knowing how it ends will eat me up and I usually finish a book within a few days.

My Husband knows about my Harry Potter (almost) obsession and does not miss a chance to give me a hard time about it. I could read Harry Potter over and over again without getting bored. I also enjoy my Twilights and Hunger Games. I favor series because it allows me to make more of a connection with the characters. Knowing they have another adventure once I finish the last page gets me excited. When I was younger I read more of a variety mystery, western, and horror. As I get older I find myself going back to comfort, and that is why I reread my favorites. Going to college, working two jobs, spending time with my family, and as of recently considering being a foster parent has not left me time for pleasure reading. That is why I spend any time I do have reading novels I know I enjoy. I hope after graduating that I will have more time to expand the literature I

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.

Literature has always been a close personal friend. I've always been surrounded and engrossed with books. One of the first books I ever read was Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. I must've read that book a thousand times when I was little. When I was in preschool my friend and I comically read along to the book. I credit most of my ability to read early on to my elementary's school librarian. I remember vividly in kindergarten our librarian teacher holding a book in her hand showing off the pictures. I was completely enthralled, more so than probably other children in the class. As time went on and I passed from grade to grade, I started to read books from the school's library. Most books I read were about tornadoes. I've always been fascinated with how

My passion for reading began the summer before junior high, the English class I would be taking had a required summer reading list. I had no desire to read “boring books” over the summer and summarize them. Fortunately, my parents made me read the first book and I was hooked. Consequently, I became obsessed (in a positive way) with this unbelievable adventure; “The Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen; transported me to the wilderness that summer and sparked my love for reading. From that moment on reading became my favorite pastime. Literature expanded my world beyond the Rio Grande Valley I visited the “Island of the Blue Dolphins”, and decided I needed dogs with “Where the Red Fern Grows”. I have several beloved books that I never get tired of reading,

Before I began elementary school, I enjoyed reading picture books, the touch and feel books and pop-up books. I loved the author Dr. Suess, because he was funny and because I loved the rhyming he did in his writing. I can remember before bed, my mom or dad would read to me until I got old enough to read myself. My mom has always enjoyed reading, if she is not reading a book, then she is reading a recipe or a magazine. My dad on the other hand, I have only seen him read one book, besides reading manuals for his tools. Reading was not a big deal in my house, all of us kids were told that we needed to read, but they did not force us to read. This brings me to Richard Rodriguez’s essay, in his household reading was not as important, but once he got to school, he realized that reading is one of the main activities. I can relate to Rodriguez because in either one of our households we weren’t told that we had to read before we did something else. Once I got to elementary school is when I realized that reading was not for me. Before school, I enjoyed reading, then once I began elementary school, I was forced to read, take tests over books, and read out loud in front of the class which made reading a chore.

Kindergarten and elementary school introduced Accelerated Reading, a point system that awarded children for reading books and testing well on them. The competitive nature it brought was key to my advancing as a reader through 5th grade. I was reading little series like Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House, connecting with these simple characters and finding a certain comfort in the familiarity between each book in them. In the fourth grade, I began trying to chase the top spot in the AR rankings, Catherine. She won every year, racking up over 1,000 points. I just began pulling large books off the shelf and reading them. This was how I came across the most impressive series of my generation: Harry Potter. I read the fourth book first, because it was the biggest. It totally threw of my experience, as I read 5,6, and 7, then went back to read the first three. Rowling's ability to immerse me in a universe sparked

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

This change in understanding didn't make me like the subjects any better. This continued for years all up until my dad began playing with various audiobooks in the car on our thirty minute drive to school. The book series that I loved the most was the Percy Jackson the Last Olympian series. I would start getting the getting the book from the library so I could read a ahead, because I couldn't wait till the next day to find out what happened in the next chapter. It came to a point where I would countdown the days until the new books came out. Soon I began to love reading and writing all because I listened to the books in the

I still remember today what my middle school English teacher told me, “It is not the reading you hate, it is the books you are reading. You just need to find the type of books that you enjoy and then that is when reading will start to mean something more to you.” It took a while, but I eventually did find the type of books that I love. The first books that opened my eyes were the titles Beastly, The Twilight Saga, The Last Song, Uglies, and Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry. It opened a whole new world to me and I continued to find books that I thoroughly enjoyed- which I would have never imagined happening. Then one day, I stumbled upon First Date and Staring Me by Krista McGee and I fell in love. I read them at least ten times a piece. Every time I got a book project, and I got to choose the book, I choose one of those. If I got a book project with a new teacher and she did not know that I had already read those books, I would read them again. There were numerous times when my parents found out that I did not sleep at all the previous night because I stayed up reading. Do not get me wrong, they were glad I was reading, but they were not very enthused that I stayed up all night to read. This continued through high school when I began to adventure out to new authors, such as John Green, Steven Chbosky, and F. Scott

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.

The beginning of my interest in reading goes way back, although I don’t have any defining “aha!” moment, where I all of a sudden enjoyed reading books. There were always books around when I was growing up, if I was at my grandparents house it was the books they kept from their youth; classics like Treasure Island or any Hemingway book, the hard covers permanently infused with dust; plenty of History books, particularly World War II history; and the children’s books I always received as presents when I visited. My mom also read a lot, but more modern books, like supernatural or light horror books, nothing too difficult (or scary). I spent a lot of time reading magazines, mostly Video Game (note: spent more time creating stories off the