Reflection Of Reading : The Habits Of My Reading

Reading, the word many children dread to hear, and I happened to be one of those children. Reading to me was a boring activity, and I never seemed to understand why everyone enjoyed it so much. People would always tell me to try to envision a story; only one that I could see. It seemed that no matter how hard I tried to envision a story, I could never see it. I assumed you had to be very dexterous to be able to imagine something so spectacular. With that being said, I always viewed reading as a detriment for myself. Recently I stumbled upon a quote by Edwin Wilson “No two persons ever read the same book”. If I heard that quote many years ago I would have never understood it, but now I seem to live by it.

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

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

I hate reading long boring novels even more. They just plain sucks. So like all my other classmates, I skipped reading all the books assigned to me. I would just listen to class discussions and on the essays, I would just repeat the ideas I heard.<br><br>Despite my negative reminiscence for reading, my memories are not entirely bitter. I remember in elementary school, my teacher told us a story of King Authur and I really liked it. So the day, the teacher took the class to the school library, I checked out "King Authur and the Knights of the Round" by Rosemary Sutcliff. After reading it, I loved it so much that I went to the public library by myself and checked out all other books by the same great author and read every single one of them. All her stories had a dark atmospheric feel which I am very fond of and the themes were all centered around the subjects of heroism, patriotism, and betrayal in the historical warfare settings of pre middle age Europe. After finishing the last book "Blood Feud" -my favorite- by Rosemary Sutcliff, I stopped reading for a long time.<br><br>Now in this college classroom, I am once again faced with what I tried to avoid for so many years, writing and reading books. In my previous years of English, I passed with Ds and Cs barely having to do anything, but now things are different. This is one of the toughest English courses in City College, and I

I sat in my fourth grade classroom staring at the bookshelf when suddenly I caught a glimpse of a dark blue book with a heroic being on the front. I lifted the heavy book and began reading Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. As soon as I started I fell into this mythical world where gods, monsters, and heroes all existed. It was a rollercoaster through my emotions. The thrill. The suspense. The surprising new book had a grasp on me, to stop reading it would be difficult. I felt attached. As soon as I started, I finished. Devastated, my chase of this feeling has never stopped, no other book has given me the same fulfillment as Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief. As a young reader I would love to find the same joy and thrill (as I did back

Reading has had a place in my life from a young age with two young working parents putting themselves through school, books often kept me busy and quiet. When I started elementary school it took me longer to develop my reading skills if it wasn’t for my favorite book series Amelia Beldia I don’t think I ever would have caught up. The moment I fell in love with reading I was in second grade on a school night I stayed up all night reading a long book about animals. I even woke up my parents at 4 am to tell them how proud I was of myself. Reading in a classroom setting is difficult for me when I'm not interested in the story. The proficiency tests throughout the years k-5th where the worst. Terrible short stories about potato farming, bird flight patterns were not interesting enough to keep my hyperactive mind on track. Against all odds, I was able to focus and graduate

I will give you some background concerning my great love for reading. Back in the third grade our reading class would always read books independently and take online quizzes that corresponded to the book, I would never take the time to read the book so I always received unpleasant grades for the assignments. When I was younger reading did not interest me by any means, therefore I would always skim over the text or in many instances not read the book at all. I found no enthusiasm in reading mainly because of the stillness and silence that surrounded the activity. I was a kid that had a lot of energy and disliked to be still and focused for reading time.

My reading is a different type of reading, with that said I am a different type of reader. As a junior in highschool I started the Rot & Ruin series by Jonathan Maberry. That is a series that sparked the inner reader inside me. I moved my reading level up all through the year and finally finished the year with a 11.8 reading level, as a junior I was pleased with that reading score. I came into senior year working on the third book in the Rot & Ruin series, Flesh & Bone. After that book we started book clubs; I read Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. I didn’t enjoy that book, although it challenged my reading skills. In the book Tatiana De Rosnay had the book bounce around between two different characters. That made the book hard to follow, although I feel the book helped me open up and focus more on the reading. After book clubs came to a conclusion we started in on the adventurous love mess, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This challenging read provoked me to read harder; I took my resources and studied, I tried to get better. Mary Shelley had themes throughout this book, the themes had me really thinking about the text. Pressing forward to the end of first semester and the middle of my Senior year, I now can say I read at a 12.9 level. I am beyond

In 5th grade, I remember that our visiting times to the school library decreased and so did my urge to read. I almost forgot how it felt to be reading books of my own choice. The only time when I would read was when my teacher would assign a specific chapter to read of the book Wonder, and a worksheet. Filling out a worksheet after reading or while reading is like a punishment, the sheet is not letting me enjoy what i’m reading. Instead it’s made me a working machine, trying to pick out small details throughout the book. As I recall, I stopped reading for my own pleasure at that time. However the next year, 6th grade, in Language Arts we would visit the library once a month, or I would visit during the quiet S.T.A.R time to pick out a book. I picked off where I left off in my reading journey and starting reading again! I realized then, my interest in book genres had changed. Why, I was more interested in books taking place in middle school/high school, meaning that I enjoyed realistic fiction. Continuing on reading, I transitioned into 7th grade. In 7th grade I kept on reading more and more, I even kept a chart of the books I read! My Language Arts teacher also read along with the class with her own books and also encouraged me. Infact, both of my middle school Language Arts teachers encouraged me to keep reading. They would be surprised every time I announced that I finished a book, that made me want to surprise them more. Overall, this time period with my teachers helped me boost my reading

One element I have discovered about myself as a reader is that I become impatient when I read too many pages at once. When I read too many pages my mind tends to wander and not focus on the book anymore. The last thing I have learned about myself as a reader is the use of time management. Time management is quite important, especially for my goal of reading fifteen minutes a day. I believe for my future goal next quarter is to read three chapters of a nonfiction book per night. Reading three chapters of a book would challenge all my weaknesses within reading, and it would be a good way to challenge my college readiness skills. As you can see reading fifteen minutes a day in this quarter has strengthened my reading skills as an individual. I hope in the future to accomplish many more reading goals as

In my year as a freshman I read four books, Wake, Fade, and Gone by Lisa McMann, and Numbers by Rachel Ward. I have never been into reading, but this year I decided to actually start reading. My original goal was at least 2 books, but then I just kept on reading. Last year I would just fall asleep during SSR time, but this year I actually stayed awake and read a lot more than I have before. Also, I tried looking for books that I would be interested in, and apparently I like supernatural, mystery sort of books. I never knew that I would be interested in those types of books, but apparently I am. My mom is also way into reading, so she helped me a lot with reading almost everyday. Because of finding books I actually enjoyed reading, and my mom helping me keep reading, I achieved my goal of reading four books this

In grade school, I was never the one who was passionate about reading. However, when it came time to write a story, I was excited and even wrote stories on my own. In third grade, my friends and I would write fictional stories during lunchtime and present them to our teacher after recess. I can still remember the sense of pride we felt when we saw the surprised and proud looks on our teacher’s face. It made us want to write more and more. But years went on, and I still never formed a fondness for recreational reading. I’ve been assigned more than five books a year in the past; some would catch my interest, but never enough to pull me in as much as to read in my spare time. There were rare occasions when I was really pulled into a book that was assigned to me. To this day I do not know if that was because of the mere thought that I was not willingly reading the book, or just that I did not have the patience for it. All

As a child, I struggled to learn to read. I was a slow reader and it often took much longer for me to read a story or a book than it did my peers. Reading was not enjoyable, so I procrastinated on completing homework and I never read for pleasure. Avoiding reading because it’s not fun makes it hard to improve. When forced to read, I would usually choose books below my reading level so that it would be easier. I wanted to like reading - I enjoyed going to the library and to the book store. The smell and feel of a new book was captivating, but trying to understand difficult words just frustrated me. During most of elementary school, I had an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) and was pulled out of class during the day to go to Resource. Unfortunately, that wasn’t helpful as I ended up missing important lessons in my regular class and, as the most advanced student in Resource, I most often served as class

I know for sure during this semester I wouldn’t have the spare time to pick up a book and read without worrying about other subjects. Although it is hard, but I did read and I am proud of it. My goal was thirty books this semester and fifty for the whole year, but, again, there can be a big improvement next time. This semester I wanted to read challenging and longer books, for example Shakespeare plays. I love to dive myself during the Elizabethan era, learn new words, and understand what each author is writing about. Since it does not affect me negatively, instead it affects me positively. The intellectual each piece of writing brings life and passion into my reading; therefore, it amuses me. Sometimes, I decide to pick up, but after I read

Writing has always been something I dread. It’s weird because I love talking and telling stories, but the moment I have to write it all down on paper, I become frantic. It’s almost as if a horse race just begun in my mind, with hundreds of horses, or words, running through my mind, unable to place them in chronological order. Because I struggle to form satisfying sentence structure, it takes me hours, sometimes even days, to write one paper. It’s not that I think I’m a “bad writer,” I just get discouraged easily. Needless to say, I don’t think highly of my writing skills. When I was little I loved to both read and write. I read just about any book I could get my hands on, and my journal was my go to for my daily adventures. Although it’s