Reading

Reading is one of my favorite things to do. Although I do not have much time to read, I enjoy it very much. My favorite books to read are murder mystery. My favorite murder mystery books come from James Patterson. His Alex Cross series is by far my favorite series to read. I also enjoy reading fantasy books, however my selection of fantasy books is very small. The Harry Potter series is my all time favorite fantasy series.

When reading, I learn a number of things. I learn a variety of new words that become part of my vocabulary. Reading widens my imagination, which I believe to be very helpful in everyday life. When I read, I become faster and faster, which is a necessity when in college courses that require lots and lots of reading..

Although reading can be fun in groups, I prefer to read on my own. When reading in groups, I feel like it’s a race to finish first or a race to see who can understand the material the most. I also believe that reading alone helps me to better understand the reading. Reading in groups can become disastrous because groups tend to get off task. However, group work does provide multiple different perspectives on what’s going on in a story.

During my early years of high school, I hated to read. By the end of my senior year, I had read nine books. My reading skills had definitely improved over the course of my high school career, which made it so much easier on me when I read. Throughout my first year of college, I have not had many opportunities to read, with the exception of massive textbooks about Biology and Chemistry. However, I was able to read two books over winter break, which was a very nice break from college reading.

The texts that were assigned during high school might’ve been my least favorite books of all time, with the exception of Beyond UFO’s. High school books were extremely dry. Of course our teachers always picked books they thought to be interesting without any consideration of what the students thought to be interesting. I don’t think I ever finished a high school reading book. They were terrible. The two worst books I’ve ever read in my life were one from high school, Cry, the Beloved Country and my first college book, Beyond UFO’s. Those were two of the driest, most boring books I’ve ever tried to read. Neither did I finish, unfortunately.

Over the course of my life, I have learned a lot about how I read. I have always been a slow reader. Through grade school I’d receive a “below average” reading comprehension score, which is most likely the reason I hated reading. I was obviously bad at it, so why should I try and get better? With the encouragement from my dad, I started to read more and more. Doing so, I became a better reader overtime. I still am a slow reader, but I am able to understand what I read and enjoy what I read. When reading, I tend to get very sleepy. This can be looked at in a good or bad way. I consider it a bad thing because when I read for any class, I always want to nap. However, when I can’t sleep, it’s great because I get sleepy within the first few pages.

Throughout my academic career, I have developed a love for reading. When I was younger, reading was nearly a punishment. I hated it. It was dreadful. With so much practice through involuntary homework assignments, I had no choice but to read and get better. After so much reading, I developed better reading skills. With these better reading skills, I start to like reading! Now, any chance I get, I pick up a James Patterson book and read, read, read. If I’m ever stressed or upset, I love to “escape” to my book because it gets me into a different thought process; reading gives me a break from my day-to-day life. I will always enjoy reading, and hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy the readings assigned in English 112!