Childhood Book Memories

    I have had a great experience with reading and keeping my mind active growing up. During the summer, my mom frequently put me in summer reading programs, and I read many different books, genres, and authors, at times it was required for school, other times, she just wanted to make sure that I was being active mentally, and not regressing with my education. She even bought me different work books so that I could do them and she would check them and give feedback on what I had done to help me get better.

    Which books I've actually read is a little bit harder to remember because there were a lot. I did get into John Grisham books at a young age, and I frequently read his books (A Time To Kill, Sycamore Row, The Runaway Jury, just to name a few). Crime and mystery fascinate me a lot and he writes them in such great detail that I feel like I'm there, and I think in some other form I wanted to be a lawyer or something in the legal field, however I don't think it's for me, I'll just stick to the books. I also read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, before the movie came out, that was my mom's one request, in order for me to see the movie, which I'm glad she did, because I wanted to see how much they were alike or lack thereof, since sometimes things can be totally different, which is was actually really good. In high school we read different books in my English class, one that I remember vividly is The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which was a good book and we also watched the movie based on it, to connect and analyze the book to the movie form as part of our assignment, and see if the messages were conveyed the same. Another book I read was The Odyssey by Homer. I loved the story and I love Greek mythology, however it was a hard read as a freshman in high school, but as I got older, and read it again in college, I was able to understand it better and make more connections, than the first time I read it. I think the first time I read it, I feel that because it was a class requirement I wasn't fully into it, and then in college, I was able to appreciate it more.

    As I've gotten older I love being able to relax with a book, nowadays everything is centered technology, which can be a good or bad thing, and I think we lose those roots and connections to how good it can be to reading a book. I've also been tutoring my cousin who is in 4th grade, and we have a read aloud every lesson, so for me that's a chance to expose him to new genres, topics, and authors that he may not normally here of. By doing this I'm increasing his love for reading and books, and helping him learn new things about the world through books, which he absolutely enjoys. He does have his favorite types of books like Pete the Cat, and books based on cars, and I make sure that I include those as well so that he can still feel he has choice in what we read, but also making sure he is exposed to great literature.

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