For the last blog, I decided to talk about my love for reading. As long as I can remember I have always loved reading. From my earliest memory, my mom always read to me. I had bookcases throughout my room and in my playroom. Books were always the gifts I was given for birthdays and Christmas. It wasn’t until about 5th grade when I started to really get into reading. We had these tests we needed to take which were called Accelerated Reading Tests. Basically, you would just read a book, and take a test on it for comprehension. To me, these tests were always sooo easy. I could read 500-page books and still get a 100 on the test. I finally realized how much reading meant to me, and I started reading at home in my free time. I liked horror books the most, but I was definitely a Junie B. Jones girl at one point in my life. As years went by, my love only continued to grow. Most recently, my favorite series of books was the After series. I started them during the year of the COVID pandemic, and no joke, I finished each book, which there was a total of 5 with about 700 pages each, in a week. Every waking moment I had, I spent it reading. This contributed to a lot of my life now in numerous ways. To start, I gained so much basic vocabulary and understanding of how “words” worked. I could identify tones and settings which I used in required writing for my classes. Additionally, I learned how to develop an attachment to a character. I could sympathize with someone who was made out to be “bad” in the story. I think that was always my favorite thing about reading. The attachment and love I developed for each character. Comparing books to movies, I always say such a drastic change in how connected I felt to the characters. I am a very emotional person, and reading always brought this out in me. While in college, the type of mandatory readings are not exactly romance and horror, enjoying reading definitely made these much less of a hassle. It is always such a great feeling to have something stay consistent in your life, and this is what reading has been for me. I can think about reading and relate it from the earliest time I remember to the most recent. My life is constantly changing and reading allows me to settle back and escape into a different place than where I am. I hope that my desire to read stays with me for the rest of my life. I hope it can help me get through the toughest parts as well as be with me while I am enjoying my best. It is definitely a big part of who I am today, and for that, I am very grateful. It helps with my ever-growing mind, and my love for education. I’m so sorry for the roughness of these last two blogs! I tried my best, but I’m sure they were a little rough to get through.
April 13, 2024 at 12:54 am
This is a great topic! As someone who used to adore reading throughout my childhood but has so much trouble getting through a book today, I really think that reading is a skill. Like you described, assigned readings have become so tedious because I do not have the attention span and stamina needed for reading. Your love for books seems to add a lot to your life, and I hope that this love stays with you forever! You’ve done a great job with your blogs this semester!!
April 15, 2024 at 2:13 am
I have always loved reading as well, and the feeling of truly becoming trapped in a book. Every since I was young I have loved a good story, and loved seeing how conflict played out across a whole cast of characters I adored. I totally agree with you and have a very similar perspective on reading. Becoming attached to characters enhances the story and allows you to be fully immersed in the book and make the pages fly by. I have loved reading your blogs this past semester, you always have such well written posts!
April 16, 2024 at 6:36 pm
I think that it is great that you were able to highlight your love for reading in a blog. Sometimes I feel as if people are no longer reading as much as they should and you making note of all of the ways reading benefits us is good to highlight. It’s also great that a test that would turn most students away only grew your love for reading. Seeing that you continue with this is refreshing.
April 16, 2024 at 6:42 pm
I can relate to everything you said in this post. I was also a book lover from a young age, and my parents were definitely a large part of that (when I was 5, my dad read me Lord of the Rings as a bedtime story). I’ve also always had a better vocabulary than my friends and always thought it was because of my reading habits. It’s nice to know that I’m not crazy like some of my friends claimed. This was a really great and relatable post, at least for me, and it definitely made me want to read a book!