Dear Non-Reader,
I know, I know, everyone's first thought at the title of this article is, "Ugh! No! Reading is so tedious, why?" For a long time I felt the same way, on top of just not having the time to dedicate to finishing books. Once I got to junior and senior year of high school though, I found that I just did not have as much time to devote to reading for fun. This summer though, with an incredibly long flight to and from Italy, I rediscovered my lost love. I am finally getting back into a hobby that I have dearly missed: reading.
As a kid in elementary school through high school, I loved reading. I would always have books for personal reading on top of any reading books I had for actual classes. I started reading in late kindergarten and the older I got the more I read. My favorites were "Frieght Train" by Donald Crews, "Cuddly Duddly" by Jez Alborough and the Junie B. Jones Series. I remember having stacks of books in my room as child and I love wandering in Barnes and Noble and the library. I could spend hours reading, page after page, chapter after chapter. That was where I developed my love for science, in the pages of books on bugs, nature, humans and animals. As kid in third grade, I wanted to be a librarian so I could spend my days among the shelves of stories from around the world.
Reading changed when it became assigned. The fun was not there anymore. Sure some of the books were good, "City of Ember" by Jeanne DuPrau, "To Kill A Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee, "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson and "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury to name a few. But many dragged on and on for pages on end which I believe ruined the experience for many of my classmates. It ruined my experience because books were no longer words on pages that authors crafted together to create small worlds full of wonder and intrigue. Now they had meanings that I often did not see at first, if ever, the mockingbird representing innocence and the green light at the edge of Daisy's East Egg dock representing hope. On my own, none of this would have been clear because to me stories were always that, stories.
That is why it is so important to read. Not only is it a good way to pass time, but it is also a great way to look at things from a different angle. Reading critically is an amazing way to not only challenge the mind but also think about topics and situations you may have never thought of before. This is why reading as many different things as possible is good too. Be it a news article on CNN or fan fiction or a research study or a good old fashioned book, reading can change the way you see the world around you. So get out there and explore the worlds that can exist between the pages of a book.
Sincerely,
Bookworm
