Reading

I grew up being read to and having many books in my house but as soon as I got into elementary school, my reading habits all changed. I was an extremely early riser and neither of my parents were so in the mornings, my parents would choose to put me in front of the television rather than getting up to force me to read. From then on, I have never truly enjoyed reading. Several years later, my parents tried to get me into reading again but nothing worked. I did not enjoy spending my free time reading and it has remained the same since. Our discussion with Ms. Gold was organized as more of a book group. We were asked to bring in our favorite childhood book and our favorite book in general as well as a New York Times article. We discussed the books we chose and went over each article. I chose “Where the Wild Things Are” as my childhood book because I loved how the main character had an immense imagination. My parents would read the book to me before I went to bed and I requested it every time. My favorite book is “Marley and Me” but I was unable to find it so I brought in my second favorite, “Firergirl”. The book tells the story of a girl who was badly burned all over her body and how one boy was able to see beyond her burns and become friends with her. Ms. Gold helped me realize based on my book preferences, that I enjoy reading books that involve some sort of empathy. It was very interesting to see what different kinds of books people brought in as being their favorites and hear their experiences with reading. Because all of the students are the same age, we all grew up reading mostly the same books and had fond memories of each book brought in. It was also interesting to hear Ms. Gold’s new method of teaching by having her students read whatever book they wanted for the first ten minutes of class. I think this is a great way to get high school students to enjoy reading again because most have, like myself, lost their love. I hope to gain a love for reading again someday and I felt that this discussion was a great way to spark my interest once more.