Personal Narrative: My Reading Memoir

My Reading Memoir

“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.

Some early memories I have of reading are very few. My mother loved to read, but she hardly ever had a lot of time to read to me while being a full-time worker and a younger first-time mom. I do remember her reading me books with fussy pictures like a book about animals and their fur. Books like that helped so that I had a better

understanding of what was going on. I also remember her reading me books that sang to me as well. Like, the Itsy-Bitsy Spider. My mother’s goal each night was to try and read me a book before bed, but, a lot of the time it didn’t happen. I didn’t understand it then why she would come home, make dinner, and want to go to bed. But now being a first time mother myself, I understand that working is tiring and trying to find the energy to cook dinner and stay up later to read is difficult.
A few school memories I have of reading are mostly annoyance. While I was in school I never liked reading. My teacher had us read books that to me were boring, so I could never get into them. The older I got the more I started to get into reading. But I was more into fantasy then realistic. Except the one book that really got me into reading in the eleventh grade that I read outside of school. The book was called Level 26 by Anthony E. Zulker and Duane Swiercynski. It’s about an obsessing, calculating, and misleading murder that was so horrible that they had to make another criminal level just for him. When I say “criminal level” I mean that in the book they explain that each convict is separated by the crimes that they have committed. The levels started from one being the least of a crime to twenty-five. Other than this book, I never got into a book that we had to read in school.
I’ve always had a few reading obstacles, ranging from understanding big words to finding time to read.

When I first got out of school, I had time to read. But as I got older the more I worked and the harder it got for me to get into a good book. When I did find a book I could get into I had a hard time with the bigger words, from reading to understanding them. Over time I got a little better at understanding and using the words around them to figure out what they meant. I still have those obstacles, but I am working through them to better my reading.

My current feeling on reading is I still have to find a book that I can get into. I’m the type of person that can’t just pick up any book and read it. I love the series The Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward. It’s about vampires that burn in the sunlight, (unlike Twilight) with many other fictional species. I also really like the series Night Huntress by Jeaniene Frost. Again, it is about vampires and other species but from a different perspective. As I have said, I like fantasy books more than realistic books. I’m just trying to make time to read.

Clearly, I’ve had my ups and downs with reading. I still have my own personal obstacles with reading that I plan on improving in my English class. I enjoy reading more now than I have in my school years. I know reading is a great way to escape as well as learning. I see reading in a different light than I have before. Like Dr. Seuss said, “The more you learn, the more places you’ll

go.”