I remember as a child watching my mom hold up a big rectangular figure and stare at it for hours. I used to wonder every day what is she doing. Then one day I finally got the courage to ask her. She said she was reading. I looked at her like she was talking in a foreign language. Then she offered to teach me how to read.
I still remember sitting in her bed reading stories every night before bed time. Then I would read as much as I could. I read to my grandpa, my sister, my dad, my brother, my mom has even told me stories about me trying to read to the dog. I always had a book with me when I was younger it was fun to read because I could read whatever I wanted.
I also remember trying to read what my sister read because I basically idolized her. I still remember her getting mad for me grabbing the same book as her in the book store and throwing the book out of the cart when our mom wasn't looking. That's when I decided to get books that interested me instead of what my sister got. That's when the harry potter phase kicked in. I read the first three harry potter books. Then something stopped me from reading the others.
The evil came. Third grade we started AR. They forced us to read and we had to get a certain amount of points every nine weeks. It basically forced us to read bigger books because they were worth more points. So I never got to read the rest of the harry potter books. I had to resort to reading captain underpants and Junie B. Jones books. I loved both of those series of books. They always helped me meet my point goal by the end of the quarter.
Then after That in junior high we had a summer reading assignment. Every summer after that I've had a reading assignment. That's basically what killed reading for me. once i was forced to read i haven't liked it since. Every time I see a book I cringe. It makes me sad because I cant read what I want to anymore because I'm either at band practice basketball practice or doing a reading assignment for one of my classes.
I wish I could go back in the past and just lay in my room and get lost in a book. Those were the great days. I remember sitting in my room with a book a juice box, and a carton of goldfish crackers. When you could just sit at home all day and read a book and get lost in your imagination.
Now the only thing I do when I see a book is cringe at the thought of what I have to do with it. Write an essay, answer questions. It just doesn't catch my eye anymore. It seems more as a punishment then a privilege. That is how I learned to read and how I feel about it now.
