I'd like all of you to raise your hand if you have read a book. You may be wondering what I am doing, but I wanted to show you something. I wanted to show you how many people have read books. These people don?t always fit into one category. They may be young, they may be old, rich, poor, and even education levels differ. Books range in topics from sports to science fiction to western. At one point or another in our lives, we were probably captivated by the words or picture on the sleek pages. If that is the case for you, then you, my friend have experienced the immense power of books. You all know that books can give hope to a hopeless soul, and they can give one wisdom and intelligence.
Maybe you have been feeling down, and in your angry state, for some reason or another decided to pick up a book. While tearing through the pages, you may have seen a glimmer of hope. Gary Paulsen, the well published author shared an experience when books gave him hope. He was a young kid, 10 years old, and just transferred from the Philippines to a public school in Washington D.C., He dropped his coat off in the in-room coat room, and was so frightened that he simply could not move. The teacher noticed this and went back into the room with him. She brought a book with a horse on the cover and let him turn the pages. This enabled him to interact with the book. When the teacher felt he was ready, she asked him if he wanted to come out. He agreed, and she held is hand as he was led into the classroom, to his seat. Paulsen?s story was just one of many stories of how books instilled hope in someone. Books gave Paulsen an escape from his drunken, screaming parents, gave him a place where he could be free from school bullies. Whether a book makes you go from a rage, to just a little sad, or from sad to happy, books can give one person hope.
Books can do more than provide hope. Books, as you would expect, can give someone intelligence and wisdom. While, Paulsen was a young thirteen year old living in the a Minnesota town, he was selling newspapers to drunks, trying to scrounge up some extra cash to buy nicer clothes to fit in with the popular kids in school.
readers a dose of reality and human experience. People read literature and end up learning
Reading a book is in many ways the same as exercising the muscles in your arm, as you are feeding your brain new information and ideas of life. Life is short and I believe that you should always be positive and do the things that you want without people telling you that you are wrong. The following Novels have taught me various aspects, which I have and still am using to make my life a memorable one as well as a positive one.
Imagine being in Germany during World War II and the only things able to help you through this period of darkness is books, that’s what life was like for the main character, Liesel Meminger, in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. The entire story revolved around how books help you through thick and thin. For Example, Mein Kampf led Max to his refuge, Liesel would read to people when they need it (like when Max fell ill, or when everyone was in a bomb shelter), reading helped Liesel cope with her brother dying, and also so much more. The books that Max write for Liesel help her understand what he’s going through during this time. For example, The Standover Man shows everyone that Max was always protected by someone who cares about him throughout his life. In short, books have a very important meaning in
When children are taught to read at an earlier age, their emotional and mental development is positively impacted. The exposure of literature to young children helps them become smarter and allows them to understand more about the world. They learn simple yet valuable lessons that allow them to make wiser decisions and display better behavior around others. Psychologist Raymond Mar held a study in 2010 on children who read books when they are younger. Mar’s results showed that reading boosted their “theory of mind” and understanding of people’s feelings. This shows that children can benefit when properly taught to read books at a younger age. It also aids children in school and increases their intellectual engagement. Kids can develop the skills to question the emotional and mental aspects of books when they start reading at a younger age. Overall, children can be greatly influenced when they read at a younger age and their mental and emotional development is affected by the positive impact of
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
When people read books, they often get into them and some can even change their views on life. Certain books can have assertainable stories that are strongly appealing to others mentality. If a person is going through a problematic period and they read a book where the main character is in a predicament that is similar, that reader might connect to that book/literary piece and it may transform their views on life and the world around them. With the literature that I have read this semester, there were times where they made me think about life and how it truly is. Some of them even made be see the world and society differently. The two literary pieces that we read this semester that changed my observation of the world was William Goldings book, the Lord of the Flies, and Henrik Ibsens playwrite, A Doll’s House.
In the excerpt from his autobiography, “Learning to Read,” Malcolm X talks about how the books he read opened up new worlds of understanding for him. That led me to think about the books that have made an impression on my life. Three books that immediately come to mind are Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther, and The Bible. Each book had a distinct impact at different points in time, growing up.
Before I began to read heavier books, and had my old perspectives of books sliced, I was a relatively close minded reader. I rarely connected to books, and thought many books were foolish. I didn’t realize the deeper meaning behind books, and was not very insightful towards them.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” by Dr. Seuss. Everyone at some point in their lives will read or be read to. For me it’s a great way to escape, to clear my head, and be at two places at once. For me, reading has had its ups and downs, but, through the years I’ve had obstacles which have molded me into the person I am today.
Often, life is an ongoing battle to stay thinking positively. Everyone deals with stressful situations, because of this, life can become quite overwhelming. People seek ways to escape reality, most of the time using drugs and alcohol to do so. Reading books is a marvelous way to practice healthy coping skills. By reading and becoming immersed in the story you forget about the world around you. In my experiences, reading has allowed me to obliterate the stress of being in treatment and thoughts of using. For instance, I am currently reading the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. Within the Divergent series, Veronica delivers a captivating story which allows readers to dive in and fully engross themselves within it. By reading books I find it uncomplicated to occupy my thoughts. Subsequently, reading can also put me in an improved mood by allowing me to walk away from a dangerous situation and think about the book. Books can also be a great resource in recovery. Books such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) ...
In a world dominated by technology, reading novels has become dull. Instead of immersing into books, we choose to listen to Justin Bieber’s new songs and to scroll through Instagram posts. We have come to completely neglect the simple pleasures of flipping through pages and getting to finally finish a story. Sherman Alexie and Stephan King’s essays attempt to revive this interest in books that has long been lost. They remind us of the important role that reading plays in our daily lives. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” for instance, demonstrates how being literate saved the narrator from the oppressive nature of society. The author explains that even though he was capable of reading complex books at an astonishingly young
My earliest memories can be found at the hands of paperback novels. Books were my escape from the world around me. The thrill of being able to leave behind the world and it’s baggage and enter another that books provided captivated me, and left an impact on me. The emotion I experienced solely from taking a small step into another person’s story was unlike any I had felt before. I desperately wanted others to feel what I had felt, and love whatever I had become entranced by with the same passion as I did.
From reading Alice in Wonderland to now, I have grown to appreciate literature much more. At the beginning of the year, I read purely because it was assigned for me to read, and I only read for important events and story plots. When reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time, I missed everything that Lewis Carroll was trying to convey to the reader. I had no idea that he had written Alice in Wonderland with the intention of preparing children for the real world. I thought it was just a story full of random events and nonsense, but after my realization of a deeper meaning, I grew to appreciate his efforts. From then on from Beowulf to the Fairie Queene, I have learned to see literary works as more than just stories but a...
There are a lot of books that explain us about life and make us think about it such as, what make us happy or what we want at the moment. For example, there is a book for kids and teengaers called “The Giving Tree” that describes the love of a tree towards a boy. In the story the tree gives everything that she has to the boy to make him happy because she loves him. At the end of the story the reader is going to ask himself/herself about some lessons that she/he learned from the book and the sad story of the tree.
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.