Reading is Fun

When I was younger, reading was very popular in my house. Just about every evening, my parents would read a wide variety of books. The most popular book back then was The Bernstein Bears. I think my parents read to us each night to send the message that reading can be fun and that books can be very entertaining. Also every Christmas Eve, my family would all get together and we would read Christmas stories. Of course most of the books were picture books, but none-the-less, they were very entertaining. My mom was the biggest reader in the family and she loved to sit around and do nothing but read. My dad was never big into books but he enjoyed reading newspapers and magazines. Despite the differences they possessed, they were always willing and wanting to read to us.

I grew up with two sisters both of which loved to read. Just like their mother, they loved to sit around the house and read. I, however missed the reading gene and never found it to be very exciting. I blamed it on the fact that I couldn’t find a series of books which I enjoyed reading, but really I just didn’t like it. I would always rather be outside or just sitting around playing video games. Like a typical guy, tried to avoid reading at all costs.

My whole perception and outlook on reading took a 180 degree turn when I was in the sixth grade. I was forced to complete a book report. Now normally I would have picked either a book I had read for a previous class or just simply skimmed over some random book. Also, while I was in sixth grade, for some reason my sisters kept harassing me because I never took reading assignments seriously. So this was the perfect opportunity to prove them wrong and actually read a book. The book I chose was Redwall, by Brian Jacques. Initially I was intimidated and mad at the same time because the book was over 400 pages! Despite the demoralizing reality that this would take a long time, I was a very slow reader, I embarked on my journey. Over the next few weeks I read around twenty pages a night and sometimes in the mornings or afternoon. This was punishment in its own sense because I would read myself to sleep, instead of just watching cartoons. Slowly I progressed through the book and when I was about half way through, I realized that the book was awesome. There was so much imagery and the story came to life in my head. To this day I still remember just about everything that occurred in that book.

After a few weeks passed, I finally finished the book. I did my book report and got an A on the assignment. At the same time I had fun bragging about how I proved my sisters wrong. Even though my initial intentions were to read a book and then never read again, I stumbled upon a new hobby. This new hobby was reading. The only catch that I soon discovered was that the only books I wanted to read were the ones that were in the Redwall series. Following this reading assignment and over the next couple years, I read most of the books in the series and I enjoyed every one of them. My entire outlook on reading had changed from originating at a negative stance to a positive one. I never dreamed that I would ever read for my own entertainment and actually enjoy reading a book.