The Habits For Reading : The Importance Of Reading

At this point in my life I find myself in an interesting predicament regarding my attitudes toward reading and writing; more so towards reading. Years ago I used to love reading books for pleasure but nowadays I find myself reading things that little to no effort to digest. This includes the very basic posts on facebook expressing one’s opinion on something or articles and threads on reddit discussing topics I find intriguing. Perhaps it’s the severe senioritis that has overcome me as I enter my last semester at Chapman University. As I’ve gotten lazier I can see it start to reflect in my everyday life. Deep down I still love to read but I rarely find myself getting truly invested into the action unless it relates to something I am very

I struggled with reading as a child, my least favorite subjects. I was held back in the first grade, because, I couldn’t read as proficiently as my classmates and I believe this resulted in a dislike for reading in general. Lucky for me, my family always encouraged me to do my best, even if it

I haven't always been keen on reading as I am today. I can’t really remember the reason for my distaste in literature, but I think it mostly came from me just thinking that reading was too difficult or I was just me being a stubborn six year old not wanting to do it, but none the less I was like this for a lot of my earlier years. I was able to read a small amount of text because my parents teaching me, using Doctor Seuss books like Cat and the Hat and One FIsh Two Fish Red Fish Blue FIsh as learning tools to help me become more fluent. I never really understood reading until my stepmom moved in with us. Since my sister and I were still very young

When I was younger, I would read book after book. I would get through multiple series and have fun while doing so. Ever since I’ve gotten to know more about the internet, and since it has impacted my education, this has changed. We use technology to write papers, research topics, or to do our homework. But, while doing so, we tend to wander and do other things too, such as play games or go on social media. Ever since the internet and all that it has to offer has come into my life, my ability to read long books has changed. In junior year of high school I assigned to read 20 to 30 pages everyday out of my book for the AP U.S. History course I was taking. When I would sit down to read these set of pages every day, I would feel as if it were a chore, as if reading had now become a chore for me. In addition, my attention span while reading those pages would decrease the more I read. The further into the pages I got, the more distracted I got. The internet took a hold of me and has changed my way of thinking just like the millions of others that use

When I was in elementary school they had A.R. it was basically reading for points, and it was not a choice. I am also pretty sure it messed up reading for me for a long time, and then when I was in the 5th grade I found the Dear America Diaries. Dear America Diaries are a series of books told from the perspective of young girls in different time periods and different situations. My favorite Dear America Diary is A Coal Miner’s Bride, and it is about a young polish girl that has to leave Poland quickly with a Russian soldier that saves her from being attacked. I realized that I only liked to read books that I could put myself into, and books that open up new lives for my mind to explore. I continued to read only what I could put myself into

I would check out books simply because we were told to, not because I was actually going to read and enjoy them. My interest in reading died down completely. It wasn’t that reading was difficult for me, I was just lazy and didn’t want to read. My STAR Reading test scores also started to go down hill. I never got a bad score, but I stopped getting the advanced scores that I used to get before. In middle school, we started to really focus on writing papers, which before, I felt that writing was my strong suit in English class because I have always had teachers tell me that I excelled at writing. I felt that way until I failed a paper we were assigned to write in 7th grade. I don’t remember much about the paper because I’ve tried to push it out of my memory as best as I could, but what I do remember is, it was a persuasive essay and apparently I didn’t do an amazing job at persuading my teacher it was good enough. Since failing what I thought was an essay deserving of an A, I became discouraged and uniterested in

Reading consumes you. I stole books. While other kids were sneaking and texting in class, I was sneaking and reading. It was a skill at propping the book just right using the edge of the desk and my thighs so you can properly see the words but the teacher doesn’t see the book. You might be thinking, so you read in class, big deal? It’s a pretty big deal when I was failing classes because I read during all the lessons. I read instead of doing homework and decide- fuck it, read during the tests. When AP, SAT, and ACT exams were coming up, I read instead of studying. I would stay home from school to read. Instead of applying for colleges, I read. Forced to go out and socialize -find a corner and read. Neglect all your friendship and never respond to their calls because I was reading. I lived through my books, I didn’t need the outside.

At the age of eight I was reading at a college level. I had no particular interest in any particular subject, yet I was reading books that no grade schooler would normally look at, let alone comprehend. Literary works ranging from alchemy, to zoology could be found piled floor to ceiling in my bedroom. But try though I might, I was still a listless, quite boy with no particular interest in anything. I had yet to find something truly extraordinary locked between their pages. So, for lack of anything better to do, I kept digging. I tore my way through most of the school library and any other work of academia I could get my hands on. However I always found myself losing interest soon after I began.

I never liked reading in school early on.The books w were asked to read never interested me and i thought they were boring.One thing in school my teachers would do is make us read aloud or tell what the story was about and i hated doing both because i was always nervous to do so.Sometimes i would cram as much stuff as i knew about the book or story and try to talk fast to get it over with.

Growing up everyone is forced to read. First, children start by being read to by their parents and then slowly over time and learning, read for themselves. Children usually at this point either quit reading all together or continue to endure and learn into classical readings such as: Harry Potter, or The Chronicles of Narnia. Kids who go through school are forced to read to increase their comprehension skills, and the ones who read on their own outside of school as well, usually have an increased score than others. Mostly people who do not read on their own have trouble connecting with the books or reading that they try. They seem to not be able to stay focused on the book, and easily become distracted with other things. Growing up I was a kid like this. I still to this day struggle with not becoming distracted with other things while I am trying to read. I always start with good intentions and then halfway down any certain page, I find myself daydreaming about something random like what I had for dinner the night before. I always had this problem, until now. During this summer literature course I have had a new inspiration for reading. From the first short story we read, The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, to the last I was surprised how interested I was in the stories. I didn 't find myself daydreaming in the middle of these stories, and instead, I was focused and intrigued on how it would end. Although many stories spoke to me during my time in this class,

While I was in middle school in sixth grade I actually didn’t know how to read books or any story my teachers would give me. As I was reading through the passages they would give me, I noticed that while I read a story it wouldn’t stick to my head. I then told myself that it is going to be difficult to read passages since nothing would click in my head. There were times where the teacher would have the students and I take mini quizzes and I would hardly understand on what the reader was talking about. I would fail the quizzes due to the reason that I never gained much knowledge in reading. Articles and stories would always be tough for me to read since I didn’t have many experience in reading.

The more I was being forced to read, the less time I spent reading for enjoyment, until eventually I no longer spent any of my free time with a novel in hand. Reading became a chore; it became boring. Sometimes the simple act of being forced to do something makes you despise it. As a child, I enjoyed several different genres of novels and many different topics intrigued me, so it wasn’t necessarily what I was reading that disinterested me. One required novel I remember reading was The Outsiders in seventh grade. This was a type of book I feel I would normally enjoy because of the mystery and action; however, I couldn’t bring myself to truly become engaged in this novel. Reason being-it was a forced act, with multiple worksheets and homework to accompany the reading. Fast forward to high school when I’m reading my required lengths in an anatomy and physiology textbook. Science has always been an interest of mine; in fact, I’m now majoring in Human Physiology. Yet reading this text wasn’t something I enjoyed. Again, because it felt forced; it was not something I was doing simply out of interest. This is how I continue to feel about most of the reading I do today as a college student.

My current situation with reading is that I somewhat approach it with a negative attitude, most of the time this is because of the type of text or topic; I enjoy reading scientific articles with graphics and numbers, where I can skim through many articles and understand it, even if it feels like useless knowledge, an example of what I enjoy is me reading about scientist claiming that the Iceberg that sank the Titanic was about 100,000 years old. I do realize that I enjoy reading text-only novels too, but it also depends the content if it attracts my attention. Also I never create a reading schedule, instead I just read when I feel like it (sometimes at last minute). Taking notes is difficult for me when reading, and since I don’t read fast

I learned that reading did not always have to be a daunting task limited to predetermined texts listed on some scholastic reading list. I realized that I had a profound interest in a specific subject and that reading literature pertaining to that subject was really not that bad. My focus and stamina began to grow, as well as my information retention. It was clear that there was a direct correlation to my personal interest and my reading ability. However, reading literature which was not related to my interests was still very daunting to me. I have found that if I could find something in a text to connect with, that my focus becomes a little more productive.

In a world dominated by rich media and multimedia interactive experiences, reading seems outmoded. However, reading is a unique dimension of human inquiry. Reading allows for ways of thinking that no other type of media can allow. Whether read on a Kindle or other eReader device or in print format, reading encourages the development of the imagination in both children and adults. In "A Defense of Reading," Marie Winn discusses the devastating effects that too much television has had on children's reading habits. Winn "defends" reading by showing how children need to create their own visual universe independent from what images the television feeds to their developing minds. Although Winn focuses on the impact of television on children's reading habits, the argument Winn uses can be applied equally to any other population including adults. Moreover, Winn's argument suggests that it is not just television that impedes reading. Too much interaction with any multimedia device like computers or video games has the potential to stifle the visual creativity and imagination that is fostered more by the act of reading. In "The Monster's Human Nature," Stephen Jay Gould does not address the pitfalls of watching too much television. The article uses Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein to illustrate concepts related to the core elements of human nature. Using Frankenstein, the author does illustrate vividly how reading books engenders wisdom and insight into the human condition.