Personal Narrative: My Reading Log

From the time that I could read, my parents were pushing me to excel in school and do the best that I could. This included reading, which quickly became my favorite part of school. Although I grew disinterested reading the nonfiction stories that droned on and on about dates, facts, and periods of history, I grew to enjoy reading fictional stories more and more. As I became a better reader, I began to outpace the picture books in exchange for chapter books. Diving into these incredible stories, I could soon visualize them and was amazed that the author could create a story from nothing, creating an entire world in their mind. So, while most people complained when the teacher announced that we had to read for class, I was one of the few that

Reading logs began in Mr. Harris’s class, whom has greatly influenced my literature experience. While I disliked the reading logs, they helped me to narrate my thoughts on the stories that I read , which would and still does assist me throughout my schooling. Just as well, Mr. Harris also had the class read The Glass Castle. This type of reading resided outside of my comfort zone as it was a memoir, however, after reading a different style of narrative, I found that I could also enjoy different styles of writing besides fiction. Venturing into high school, the curriculum focused on Classical stories such as Romeo and Juliet and Homer’s Odyssey. Reading Romeo and Juliet my freshmen year broadened my literature perspective as it was written in the format of a play. This led me to the realization that there are multiple styles and formats to write a story. From there, Homer’s Odyssey continued this epiphany as it contained an older style and therefore significantly harder to read fluently as I was challenged to pick through the meaning of the story. Yet, these challenges expanded my vocabulary and understanding of writing, which, at its core, is merely telling a story, whether for the purpose of ethos, logos, or pathos or simply for the sake of telling it. As I read through more advanced forms of writing, I began to become challenged to understand them. While I witnessed these challenges push the majority of my peers away from reading, the difficulty merely captured my interest into the subject even