My Reading Autobiography

“The whole world opened up to me when I learned to read.” This quotes from Mary McCleod Bethune accurately describes my life. My mom is a teacher, so she knew the importance of reading. She or my dad read a book to me most nights during my childhood. Although I cannot recollect a specific memory of them reading to me, I do remember some of the books. I know that I must love some of these books because somewhere in my subconscious I remember them being read to me. It’s funny how the brain works isn’t it? I cannot recall a specific time of being read to at an early age, but there are certain books that hold a special place in my heart.
Among those books are: The Polar Express, Where the Wild Things Are, You are Special by Max Lucado, The Rainbow

I remember reading the Nancy Drew books, Sweet Valley High books, and others similar in middle school. One summer I happened to come across The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe book at my grandparents’ house. How magical that summer was! I knew I had to read the rest in the series. When I became I teacher, I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my class and watched as they fell in love with it too. In eighth grade, I read The Hobbit and my mind was opened to more sophisticated books. I remember checking it out and my mom telling me she had read that in school too. I think it really makes a difference when your parents are also readers. Growing up, I would see my parents reading often. I felt “cool” that I was reading something my mom had also read around my age. I fell in love with the characters in this book and was swept off to Middle Earth with them. I loved Bilbo Baggins so much that my dog is named Bilbo! However, there are many that do not understand his name when I tell them and I want to say, “You really should read The Hobbit. It’s a

I read: The Great Gatsby, Silas Marner, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Flies, and Rebecca, to name a few. Jane Eyre had a big effect on me. As a typical high school student worried about appearance, it was encouraging to have a female protagonist that was admittedly homely but won the heart of a man anyway. Elizabeth Bennet’s, in Pride and Prejudice, stubbornness and independence reminded me a lot of myself. I was also sucked into the Twilight phenomenon. While I was reading the series, so was every girl in my high school. Everyone was carrying a Twilight book around with them. Even though these are not the best written books, it was exciting for everyone to be reading the same books and to discuss them with each other. It brought unity in our school because whether you were popular or not, played a sport or not, were in drama club or not, everyone was reading Twilight. Therefore, everyone was talking to each other about these books. I find it interesting that books can have such an effect on a body of