Mullen Children's Lit 2014 discussion
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The Book Whisperer
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Self Reflection
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Tracy
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Feb 25, 2014 06:55PM
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I would consider myself to partly be an underground reader. In school I would read as many books as I could get my hands on. I did not always enjoy the books that were chosen for our classes to read, but I read them anyway and then went back to the books that suited my personal preferences. There were only a couple of books that I can recall not really enjoying that were assigned for a class. I was always and avid reader and an advanced reader. I usually scored the highest in classes or tests that were related to Language Arts; reading, writing, comprehension, that type of subject. I was always a confident reader as well. To this day I still excel in English classes, with reading and writing as my strong suit. I still read books for school then come home and fire up my kindle to read a book of my choosing during any free time. I enjoy exciting books, usually mystery, suspense, action or memoirs. I end up reading memoirs that are somehow related to a historic or current event and this gave that event in history a personal side or memoirs which I can relate to. Most recently Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, by Mindy Kaling because I can completely relate the entire book to my existence. I get lost in books and feel a connection to the novels and characters that I get to know while reading. I enjoy fiction or non-fiction, to me it is all knowledge and keeps my brain and creativity sharp.
I would consider myself as a dormant reader. I’ve never minded reading what was assigned to me but when it came to free time, I was never the one to just pick up a book for the fun of it. I had other interests, such as, sports. I wish I would have gotten more in to books having to deal with sports because I think that would of increased my interest of reading. Now that I’m older, I really wish I would have read more as a child. I think my ability to comprehend would be much faster and having to read long assignments would be more bearable. Once in awhile I will read a mystery or romance or something that interests me.
I would say that I am an underground reader because I love reading books. Once I get hooked on a book I can't put it down, no matter what I have going on. I would say when I was younger I enjoyed reading but I felt it was something we had to do because school made us. Now that I have the choice and ability to pick out my own books I want to read more. Reading comprehension was one of my strong suits in school and I am so glad that my love for reading has continued. Being in college it is a lot harder to find time to pick up a good book and just get engrossed by it but I try to find the time.
I would consider myself more of a dormant reader. I do enjoy reading, however, it is not something I regularly do. It seems as if the older I get the less I read. I think this is due to my hectic school and work schedules not allowing me the down time to pick up a book and read. I wish I had more time that would allow me to enjoy a book every so often.
I enjoyed reading when I was younger, but once I hit high school I definitely became a dormant reader. I read what I had to in my classes and nothing else. I was focused on doing whatever it took to get good grades and I didn't see reading outside of class as worth my time. Now I would consider myself more of an underground reader. I don't where the turn happened, but now most of the reading I do is by choice and not for school. I have really found an enjoyment for reading. I will get in bed at night and decide Ill just read a couple chapters before I fall asleep, but before I know it I've read ten chapters.
When I was growing up, I would have considered myself a dormant reader. I do not remember reading just because it was enjoyable. I read because it was required in the courses I was taking. I didn’t dislike reading. Books just really weren’t available.I grew up in a house with six siblings. My mom stayed at home to raise us, and my dad worked two jobs. We didn’t really have the means to buy books and have them in our house just to read for enjoyment. I remember teachers handing out book orders at school. Only a couple of kids could order books. When those books came in, I have to admit, the rest of the class and I were jealous.
Our school library had books. Honestly, I do not remember getting to check out books just to read for fun.
Our small town had a public library. It was a huge old building full of old books. I do remember going to this library, but none of the books looked fun to read. The librarian was a crotchety old woman who acted like she didn’t really want kids in the library. My sisters and I would look at the “Highlights” magazine while we were there. This was the newest and most fun item we could find to read. Of course, you were not able to check it out and take it home.
At this point in my life, however, I would consider myself to be an underground reader. When I have time, I love to read. I bought a Kindle, so I have access to any book I want, at any time I want. The world’s technology is great allowing us this kind of access to books!
I am similar to Miller and one of her students named Hope in the excerpt we read. I also love Greek mythology, fantasy, and science fiction. Once I pick up one of these types of books, I can’t put it down. I will ignore all the things I need to do like housework, cooking, and cleaning. It is almost like an addiction. I have to finish the book! I am sure many there are many other people in the world who are just like me!
I consider myself to be a reluctant reader. In elementary school, I would say that I wasn't as much as a reluctant reader as I am now. I loved going to the library and finding books and reading them on my own time. I loved having the teacher read big chapter books to us with complicated and thick plots. I loved getting caught up in the stories and characters' lives. But I definitely didn't enjoy reading as much as the other students in my class. If I had free time, sometimes I would read but mostly I would go outside and play games with other kids my age. That was what I really loved to do. Once I got older, I got busier so my free time decreased. I also had more reading assignments in school so I didn't have time to read what I wanted and no educators really gave me the opportunity to pick out books that I wanted to read. So my love of reading quickly dwindled away. Today, I'm still a reluctant reader. Now, even when I find a good book, I have a hard time finding the desire to finish it. I tend to read a book half way through and never finish. On rare occasions, I find books that I fall in love with and read them in a few days time. I wish I had this desire all the time, but I sadly do not.
I would consider myself to be a dormant reader. When I was younger, reading was not something that was expected of me to do in my free time, from my teachers nor from my parents. We would go to the library, pick out our books, and then go back to the classroom to read something else that had an assignment to go along with it. I always felt like reading was a chore and because of this, I never tried to find books that interest me. The first book I read in high school that was required was way over my head. I don't even remember the name of it, but it was not an easy read for me because I didn't find one bit of it interesting. This set the bar for all required books in high school. I thought of them as long, boring homework assignments and never allowed myself to engage in the story. Also, I would rather hang out with my friends or go to the movies instead of read in my free time at this point. I would say now, I will read a book every once in a while if I hear good things about it, but never do I go on journeys to look for books to read in my free time.
I consider myself to be a dormant reader at this time in my life. This is not necessarily by choice. It seems like my life is way to busy to be an underground reader. I currently work 40 hours a week, take 15 credit hours, bought a house, and am getting married in June. My time for reading is dedicated to reading for school. Like a dormant reader this is to pass tests and pass classes. I feel that later on in life I will be more of an underground reader. I know that I would enjoy reading if I could turn my brain off of the other things I need to get done. Also, as a child I did struggle with reading some but with a lot of practice reading with my parents, I became advanced.
Growing up I never really liked reading. I read what was assigned to me but that was it. I didn't ever find reading enjoyable so I would say I was a dormant reader then. However, in ninth grade the school librarian suggested that I read a Nicolas Sparks book and I fell in love with this book of romance. I ended up reading all of his books he had written that were in our library. She then suggested the Twilight books along with many other books and I began to love reading. I would consider myself a underground reader now. I really enjoy the reading I do for myself. I don't enjoy most of the reading that I do for classes. Usually it's pretty dry stuff. But now that I am getting more into my major classes I'm finding the reading more relatable and enjoyable to me. I think it takes the right kind of reading or book to make me the underground reader I am.
After reading the book excerpt, I would consider myself to be a dormant reader. I tolerated reading for classes and performed decently on tests, but I didn't usually read just for the fun of it. Growing up, it becomes even harder to find the time to read books as a hobby. The books that I find myself reading are books that become movies. Although I am not an avid reader, I do know that books more often than not are better than the movie. So if I catch word of a book becoming a movie that sounds good, I try to read the book first. I am about to start Divergent because the movie looks amazing!
I am an underground reader through and through! I love to read and I will read anything you give me unless it is a textbook over a boring subject! I excelled in English class because I liked to read which is where I kind of deviated from the definition of the underground reader but I think mostly I would read those books because I could read through it all and then be done and not let it take weeks and weeks of reading here and there. Another thing I like to do is read books that are about to become movies or are already movies so I can read the book first and then go find the movie or go see the movie.
I would consider myself to be a dormant reader. In high school, I would only reading during the week. On the weekends, I would completely forget about my book. I would often leave my book at school. I would only read the minimum the requirement to pass my classes and complete any assignments that went along with the reading. Most of my teachers would have a select list of books that we could read, or they picked the book for us. Because of this, I was never interested in reading. I also had a hard time finding a book that I really enjoyed. Lucky, I like reading a lot more now that I'm in college. I can pick out a book at random, and if I don't like the book I can return it no questions asked.
If I were to choose what type of reader I would most closely relate myself to in respect to the chapter from "The Book Whisperer", I would align myself most closely to an underground reader. The reason I would choose this classification is because although I love to read sometimes the reading I was asked to do in school was disconnected from the reading that I preferred to do on my own. In those instances where we read a book as a class that I did find interesting, the slow pace of reading and worksheet after worksheet really did turn me off.
I think I am a dormant reader, though at times I have felt like a developing reader. I cannot think of many times where I have just sat down to read a book because I wanted to. I am the type of person who only reads what I have to and don’t read for pleasure. I like the idea of reading but I never actually sit down and read. I always find something else to do instead or can’t find something interesting to read. I think another reason why I don’t read is because I read slowly and it takes a while to understand what is happening. Reading “between the lines” has always been a struggle for me but if I am really engaged in a book then it becomes easier. This goes to show that reading a book that you like makes all the difference. The few times I have read on my own have been during the summer because I have time to and I don’t feel rushed. I like reading when I actually sit down and do it, the problem is making myself get to that point.
After reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, I found myself identifying the most with the dormant reader. I spoke about this a little bit during class. I always was a skilled reader; I just never seemed to have an interest in it. I dreaded having to do book reports in fifth grade. I never could find a book that interested me. Even today, I am lousy at picking out books. One thing that I learned during my years of working for a public school is to watch what several of the students are reading…. And then read that! I must say, it has worked out well for me so far. I have discovered in myself a strong interest in reading that I never knew was there. I was never the type of kid to go up and ask the librarian what she suggested and truthfully our librarian was a mean, cranky, old woman, who I avoided if at all possible. It does make me wonder, though, how my school experience would have been different if I would have had someone in my life that talked to me more about books. I guess that I should say that I am so thankful for my beginning years working for the school system that helped me discover my love for reading. I wonder if I would have discovered it on my own.
I feel as though my reading style changes. While in school I barely have any time to read. I love reading but the only time I get to myself I want to just relax. During the summer I am an underground reader. I love reading and it’s easy to find time to read since I don’t have required readings getting in the way making my eyes tired. During the school year I am a dormant reader. I will read the required material just to get by but I don’t have much of an interest in it. I have however found that since starting the classes for my major I am reading more and finding it a lot more interesting. I have a list of books that I plan on reading in either the future or the summer but for the most part I am a dormant reader. I know once I graduate this will change. I will definitely be an underground reader. I can’t wait to get done with school and read my list of books and re-read my favorites. I feel guilty re-reading my favorites because I know I have an unread list, but sometimes I can’t help it!
