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My Exposure to Reading
I was around 3 when things in life started to make sense to me and this included reading. My mom read a lot and I noticed this. One of her favorite authors was Stephen King, she also enjoyed reading a lot of biographies about the Beatles. -
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My Reading History
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The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
When I was around 6-7 we were not doing very well financially, but my mom still tried to do all that she could. We had library cards for our public library since they were free and we frequently visited since it was within walking distance from our apartment. This was around the age when I developed a love for Shel Silverstein's books. Some of my personal favorites were "The Giving Tree" and "The Missing Piece". -
Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park
In first grade, I loved these books. My teacher would read them to us. And these books helped me develop my love for reading along with a lot of other series. While before I had read Shel Silverstein with my mom these were some of my first exposures to books that were not just illustrated poetry books. My first introduction to chapter books. -
Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborn
I started reading independently the Magic Treehouse books when I was in 2nd and 3rd grade. These were the first chapter books I read by myself, I loved reading these books and read as many as I could find in our school library. The books were interesting and they were my first taste in fantasy books which I came to love. -
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
I read this book at a fairly young age, I was in third grade and this book was truly just one of my favorite books. I loved the illustrations and the story being told. I think it will be a book I remember until the day I die because it had such a lasting impact on me. -
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
This was one of the books that we had read to us when I was in 4th grade. We read this book as a class and I remember just crying at the ending. It was such a good book and it was the first experience I can remember truly relating to a book and being able to relate to the story and put myself into the characters shoes and feel what they feel. -
The Giver by Lois Lowry
We read this book in 5th grade as well and it was the first time I had been introduced to a dystopian book. This book was amazing and helped me realize part of the books I like and want to continue to read. -
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle
I read this book independently in 5th or 6th grade, I loved this book and it also helped connect me to fantasy novels and a bit of science fiction as well. This is different from the books I read now but I still heavily enjoyed this book. -
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
This is the first time I read a book where I really felt myself relating to the characters. I felt like I related a lot to Katniss Everdeen, she would do anything to keep her family safe, including putting her own life on the line and I would as well. She works hard throughout the series to overcome her oppressors and is a fighter and I see that within myself a lot. I will fight for things I believe are right and I will stand up for myself and I really connected to Katniss because of that. -
Of Sound Mind by Jean Ferris
This book was my summer reading book going into 8th grade and it was fantastic. This book wasn't like anything I had read before and it pulled on my heart strings and was eye-opening to the situation of having deaf parents, something I had not thought about before. -
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
I love poetry books and this book really just opened up a whole new world of poetry for me. This book fell into my hands during a really hard time in my life and I could not be more thankful for it. I love poetry, I love reading poetry and I love writing poetry, and this book really helped show me that poetry is such a good form of self expression, I have continued to grow my collection of poetry books but this is the book that started it all. -
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
This book was read to me by my teacher in my sophomore English class. It was amazing, realistic fiction, and just was a story I would never have read on my own but it was fantastic and I would read it again any day, the story is just amazing. -
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
This book was read by my sophomore English teacher and this book tore me apart emotionally that is. I loved this book, realistic fiction once again and it is something I would have never picked for myself. But it had me enthralled in the story, I did not want the class to end daily because of how much I loved this book. -
Animal Farm by George Orwell
I have to this day not read a single other book like Animal Farm and that's because it just truly was not my thing. It was read to me in my sophomore year by my English teacher and even though I understood the book and passed the test for it, it just was not my cup of tea at all. It did not appeal to me, even as someone who enjoys history this book just still did not appeal to me. -
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
This was one of the few books we read my senior year of high school and I honestly was not a huge fan. If I was reading the book on my own I may have liked it more but my teacher read it out loud and we had blocked scheduling due to COVID so it made it hard to keep the book in straight order and it just seemed to drag on as it took us an entire semester to finish it. It is a classic but I was not a fan, and this was the first book in that specific teachers class I did not care for. -
Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
This was a book I read on my own during my senior year of high school where my love for reading (specifically romance novels) bloomed. I adored this book, so much so that I read the entire 3 part series in less than 2 weeks because I just could not put them down. I love romance novels so much, and this series helped me discover this. -
Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks
I read this book my senior year of high school and it was another book I could not put down. Still to this day I have not really read another book like it. The style and way that the book was written is just super interesting. The book was a very good but very heartbreaking read, I could not put it down. I read it within a day or two and loved it. -
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
The Love Hypothesis was a book I picked up because it was being raved about all over TikTok and being a romance girl, I knew I had to read it. It was the first book I had read and gotten into after graduating high school due to not having a lot of free time and it was AMAZING! I could not put it down, I was reading during my breaks at work, after work, before work, really just any chance I got. This book got me back into my love of books after just having little to no motivation anymore to read! -
After by Anna Todd
This was another romance book I read on my own. I read it on vacation last year and I really enjoyed it. I plan to continue reading the series but books can be expensive. It really just feeds into my love for romance and messy romance at that. The book appeals to me because I like the messy and up and down relationship the main characters have, and I love the enemies to lovers trope, it is one of my favorites and it is in this book! -
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
This book is next on my to read. My current goal for 2023 is to read at least 12 books this year, while it may not seem like a lot, between working full time and school full time I often find myself lacking free time to read and do things I truly enjoy, so I am setting this goal for myself this year to read at least 12 books. I haven't read a book yet for January which means I will have to make up for it later, but that's okay! I just want to get back into something I love to do!