Each year as I grow old, I tend to discover and learn new things about myself as a person as well as a reader, writer and a student as a whole. My educational journey so far has been pretty interesting and full of surprises. Back in Bangladesh where I studied until high school, my interest for learning, reading or writing was so very different compared to how it has become over the years. I could relate those learning days to Richard Rodriquez’s essay “The lonely Good Company of Books”. In the essay the author says, “Friends? Reading was, at best, only a chore.”(Rodriguez, page 294). During those days I sure did feel like reading was a chore for me and how I was unable to focus and I could never understand what all those jumbled up words ever meant. It was quite a struggle for me in class when the teachers used to assign us reading homework. I felt like reading a book was more difficult or painful than trying to move a mountain. Just like how moving a mountain is impossible, trying to find an interest in reading was …show more content…
I almost forgot that I had a problem with reading. It’s so fascinating to know about people and their various opinions regarding their relationship with reading. For example in Richard Rodriquez’s essay he tries to explain himself when one day the nun concluded a session by asking him why he was so reluctant to read by himself. He then says, “I tried to explain; said something about the way written words made me feel alone---almost, I wanted to add but didn’t, as when I spoke to myself in a room just emptied of furniture.” (Rodriguez, page 294). Unlike the author, my case was completely opposite of him. I figured when I’m alone in an isolated place, I understand what I read way more in depth than I ever can while I’m surrounded by people. Though I truly like to read occasionally now, that still doesn’t mean I have become a
Solomon, Andrew. “Reading at Risk: Lack of Interest in Literature is a Crisis.” Commentary – Columbia Daily Tribune. 8 Aug. 2004. 19 Sept. 2004. <http://www.showmenews.com/2004/Aug/20040808Comm007.asp>.
In the essay, “The Lonely, Good Company of Books,” Richard Rodriguez discusses the topic of his childhood experience in reading books. He believes that reading books will make him more educated when in reality he wasn’t gaining anything. First, he opens up by saying that he didn’t believe that books will help him be successful. Then, he states that how his first teachers in school were the ones who motivated him to love reading. Every day after school he met up with a nun and she tried to influence him to read books above his grade level by saying that “a book could open doors for him” and that “ it could introduce him to people and show him new places. Furthermore, he says “books were going to make me more educated,” so he began to read a
Some people believe that reading for pleasure is a waste of valuable time. They say that spending hours on a book is unproductive. Most people only read when it’s needed for school or for a job. Cynthia argues that reading may be the best possible use of time. She professes that we must read in order to make sound decisions. We must read to know about the scientific developments and ethical issues that impact our lives. She states, “Books shed a light that illuminates our problems and
My dad taught me that books could be my teachers, my mom taught me that our backyard could be my classroom, and my sister showed me that you could bring books into the swimming pool. I did not know it when I would spend hours in the pool reading a book that my parents weren’t encouraging it in vain, but my family life, for good reason, was centered on books. We were the planets orbiting around one sun that was the bookshelf. Little did I know that books would be the catalyst to academic success in my early life, and I owe it all to my family. Although a life with a book in your nose might seem boring, I was never bored. Living through the characters vicariously, I explored Narnia with Lucy, attended Hogwarts with Harry, and rode dragons with Eragon. Of course
Reading is on the decline and our reading skills are declining right along with the amount of reading we do. This is happening right across the board through both genders, all age groups and education levels, people are busy and they just do not have time to read books that they are not required to read for school or work. There are serious consequences to this neglect of reading that will continue to worsen if ignored. We need to take notice of what is happening to our culture and stop this situation from continuing, we must act to correct these issues that we are faced with. These things are discussed in the essay “Staying Awake’’ by Ursula K. Le Guin who uses the NEA essays “To Read or Not to Read’’ and “Reading at Risk’’ to support her argument that there is a decline in the amount of time that we are spending on reading and our ability to understand what it is that we are reading.
There are two types of people in the world, those who read and those who do not. The latter category doesn’t only contain those who are illiterate and unable to read, but those who are unwilling to pick up a book and sit with it for a while. Those who are too busy, or bored by books do not understand their weight. Books do more than just provide entertainment for a long airplane flight. They provide world’s to escape too, concepts to explore and feelings that stay with you. The books I’ve read have positively and negatively shaped my life from early childhood books to required school readings each has changed the way I perceive the world or how I visualize my education and future.
In “The Lonely, Good Company of Books,” by Richard Rodriguez, you learn that Rodriguez had read hundreds of books before he was a teenager, but never truly understood what he was reading. His parents never encouraged him to read and thought the only time you needed to read, was for work. Since his parents never encouraged Rodriguez to read it effected how he perceived books.
On the other hand, in university, I was required to read, a lot, in a variety of courses. However, I was never told the benefits of reading, how much of an impact it had on the way I wrote, viewed the world, analyzed and critic. Reading is simply something one must do. If you enjoy it, great, it’ll be an easy task for you. If you do not, you still have to do it, it is not at a higher academic level that professors take the time to change the students from “non-readers to readers”. I believe that a shift from viewing reading as a task to a pleasure has a very slim chance of happening both in high school and university. Most of the people I am surrounded by are trying to have a 4.0 GPA while taking very challenging classes, applying for veterinary, dental and medical schools, working in laboratories, volunteering and trying to get a perfect score on the MCAT or GRE. There is no time for these individuals to take pleasure in reading and view it as a learning experience. Once their academic career has ended around age thirty, these new pediatricians, orthodontists, veterinarians have had their faces in books for decades. Predictably, most don’t want to read anything anymore. Those who do were the same people who at age ten would read in secret with a flashlight at one in the morning. This is
Nevertheless, reading can cause problems in life too. In relative, I began a story that was appealing to the eye. As I continued reading, I noticed a change in mood. Drifting out of focus, I was forced to reread sections of multiple pages; eventually, leading to my decision that reading is not my strong suit. For instance, it is evident that listening to the information is just as effective as it is to read it. While surveying my father, he spoke with confidence; meanwhile, I was still shaky about my decision. This is just one of the copious reasons people do not enjoy
Although the greater picture is that reading is fundamental, the two authors have a few different messages that they seek to communicate to their audiences. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” depicts how reading serves as a mechanism to escape the preconceived notions that constrain several groups of people from establishing themselves and achieving success in their lifetimes. “Reading to Write,” on the other hand, offers a valuable advice to aspiring writers. The author suggests that one has to read, read, and read before he or she can become a writer. Moreover, he holds an interesting opinion concerning mediocre writing. He says, “Every book you pick has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (p.221). Although these two essays differ in their contents and messages, the authors use the same rhetorical mode to write their essays. Both are process analyses, meaning that they develop their main argument and provide justification for it step by step. By employing this technique, the two authors create essays that are thoughtful, well supported, and easy to understand. In addition, Alexie and King both add a little personal touch to their writings as they include personal anecdotes. This has the effect of providing support for their arguments. Although the two essays have fairly different messages, the authors make use of anecdotes and structure their writing in a somewhat similar
While I begun to love reading I feel like its getting ruined for me with all of the annotation and work that comes with it. My past experiences have led me to enjoy reading but I will always hate having to
Staring at the front cover, I stick my tongue out and furrow my brow at the thought of reading a book in its entirety. This is how my mind worked as a small child. Reading was not my idea of fun nor was I even comprehending what I was looking at. My parents weren’t the best students, so I always felt like it was pointless to ask for help at home. However, I did learn to read and comprehend books after I had help from an inspirational teacher. She took extra time out of her evenings to teach a child that there is more than just the alphabet arranged across pages. In “How I Learned to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass and “The Lonely, Good Company of Books” by Richard Rodriguez, they tell us their own stories about books and reading. Douglass
While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.
Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.
Throughout my life, reading and writing was not always my strongest point. In fact, it was one of my weaker subjects and I loathed being forced to read and write when it comes to school. I remember even up to the end of my senior year, I rarely touched any of my textbooks or barely read any of my assigned books throughout high school. However, as I began college, I started to force myself to fully read all my textbooks and complete my writing assignments with my fullest capabilities. In the past couple of weeks, I found ways to balance out my reading and writing to fit in with my leisure time and for school assignments.