Richard Burgess: A Personal Narrative Of My Life

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.

As a girl growing up around a group of bikers, boys and two parents who listened to eighties hair bands and metal, you wouldn’t think that I read or was read to frequently before starting school. I pursued in reading quite often, actually. When I finally started school, I had the tendency of keeping to myself and staying quiet. There never have been very many friends in the picture of my life. I learned at a young age that there often are going to be cliques, even when you’re an eight year old in girl scouts. I stood out in more ways than one, but for now I’m only going to elucidate why reading is so salient to me.

My mother taught me how to read at a young age. She read to me before I could read which helped me learn new words and develop a basic understanding of literature at an early age. When it came time for me to attend elementary school, I remember heading to the library quite often. Books were organized based on what was thought to be the appropriate reading material for that grade level. I often found myself wandering down the isles with the older kids. I’m so grateful my mother encouraged reading as much as she did. If she hadn’t, it’s very possible I could have struggled with reading. If this were true, I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did, or had the desire to read, which is very important in order to become as advanced in literature as possible.

When I was a younger I don’t remember if I was read to or not, but I read a lot of books. I enjoy reading books because they allow me to reach new heights in my imagination. At my age many kids say that reading is boring and is for losers. I think it’s cool to read and will continue to read throughout my life. I have read many different types of books from fiction to biographies. The longest book I ever read was a book called Dragon Rider by Cornella Funke. It was five hundred and thirty five pages! When it comes to reading I am a superstar! When I’m reading I am able to get a moral lesson from what I read, so it ends up helping me in the long run of my life

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

I can somewhat relate to that because I rarely saw my father pick up a book and just start reading. He would sometimes read the paper to stay caught up on the news, but hardly ever did I see a book in his hand. I do however remember my mother reading quiet often. She would just sit on the couch with her cup of coffee and read for hours. Shoemaker stats that “when I was younger, both my father and mother were never home to neither entertain nor read to my brother and I” (348). That was completely opposite with my mother and I. She would read all types of books to me like The Hungry Caterpillar, Giving Tree, or Dr Seuss. I don’t have a lot of memory of when I first learned to read, but according to her I didn’t read well until the end if Kindergarten. On the other hand, I do remember her taking my brother and I to the public library where she let us check out a maximum of four books each. We would mostly check out nonfiction sports books like biographies of athletes such as: LeBron James, Vince Carter, Allen Iverson, Mark McGwire and many

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.

Throughout my childhood I enjoyed reading a variety of books as a method of escaping my troubles and delving into someone else’s world for a short time. But it is my belief that being an avid reader also helped me become

My mother, would read to me Dr. Seuss. I recall her telling me about Sam I am, and his green eggs. I became an independent reader in kindergarten when I read Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish. While its 63 pages may not seem hard in retrospect, at the time I felt a great sense of accomplishment in doing that, because it was the first novel that I had read entirely on my own. The books I liked to read as an adolescent were primarily non-fiction books. It was always related to history. Whether it be the history of The Minnesota Twins or about the Titanic, I was always reading about history. I still read a fair deal of fiction. Our school took part in the accelerated reader program and I would always read the fiction books; Lemony Snicket etc; because they had the highest point values. Reading in classes has never been much of a challenge to me. Some of my favorite moments in school have been the moments where I was exposed to Hemingway and when I was exposed to

My father left at the age of three leaving me in the capable hands of my mother. This is where my life began. I don’t reminisce my father, the only memory I have of both my parents was relationship of abuse. My mother worked effortlessly making life survivable. Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut wasn’t easy. I was girdled by opulent people and didn’t have the same opportunities as my peers around me did. As grew up, my only escape from reality has always been reading. Books have shaped my life inexplicable. I’ve traveled and experienced life through a vast variety of characters. From reading The Giving Tree by Shel Sliverstien to How to Kill a Mocking Bird By Harper Lee and developing the knowledge to read classical literacy like Emily Bronte

Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales

The origin of my reading career took place when I was five years old at a Target in Highland, Indiana. My grandmother always took me to Target and would encourage me to learn to read. She would take me to the literacy section and allowed me to choose five books to look at while she was shopping. After my grandmother finished her shopping, she would allow me to bring home one book each time. When we arrived home my grandmother would sit next to me and read the book I chose to take home. She would say a sentence from the book and have me repeat the sentence that she said. This experience sculpted my interest in reading books, but it caused issues with my comprehension. My grandmother would only teach me how to say the words and form them

I was assigned daily in my classes many reading assignments. But I was still going through the stage in not wanting to read. Although, I despised reading, having low grades were unacceptable to me. I had no choice but to read. Although, I can admit, many of the short stories, books, and articles I was assigned were very interesting. I learned a lot from non-fiction articles. When I was a sophomore in high school, I had a wonderful English teacher named Mrs. Shoffner. She recommended the class to check out a book in the library every 2 weeks to gain reading skills. As I entered the library I did not know where to begin nor what book I wanted to read. I went to the war books section because there is one thing I love enjoying to read and that would be books that deal with the world wars and diaries of people and the suffering they went through. I checked out a book called Milkweed. A book based on the pain and suffering the Jews went through in world war two. This book has been and will forever be my favorite book. I can read it over and over and never get tired of reading

Books were my best friend as a young adolescent and when I say “Best Friend” I mean so in a literal sense. I will not go into the specifics, most of it was quite boring I assure you. I attended a very small school, in an even quainter town, so I could probably count the number of people I knew and actively spoke to on a regular basis on both hands. I was a bit of a peculiar child, I was always a little too weird, or a little too quiet for the other twelve children in my grade’s taste. Consequently, as one could imagine, I didn’t exactly have people lining up around the corner

Since childhood, I have been enamored with reading. This passion comes from my mother who advocates literacy to my siblings and me. Elementary school teachers regularly admonished me for hiding a novel behind a textbook, or in my lap, and sneaking glances whenever possible. When school dismissed, my nose would be buried inside a book, and I read anything I could get my hands on: my brother’s books, my mom’s Women’s Day magazines, and even the backs of cereal boxes. Snuggled up in blankets, I grabbed the latest Magic Treehouse and plunged into magical worlds for countless hours. Every summer break, I checked out numerous paperbacks for my library’s Reading Program.