A Love Read-Discovered

              I was in kindergarten when my passion for reading began. My mom introduced me to many different series that I would eventually grow up reading and loving: Harry Potter, Junie B. Jones, Judy Moody, My Weird School, Amelia Bedelia, A Series of Unfortunate Events, etc. We would laugh and speculate over the books we read together, and she always knew when the next one in the series came out. I truly owe my love of reading to my mom and her personal love of books. Reading easily became a favorite hobby of mine and the desire to read came naturally to me. Needless to say, reading and language arts became two subjects I excelled in while I was in elementary school. One of my childhood dream jobs was to be an author and I even wrote a few of my own “books” (sheets of computer paper stapled together, with pictures hand-drawn by me 😉).

            My mom was a “stay-at-home” parent most of the years I was in elementary school. Over those years, my mom, my brother, and I went to many different libraries frequently. We participated in multiple summer reading programs every year. I would always check out books about the topics I was interested in at the given time, and would re-read my favorite novels repeatedly. My personal bookshelf grew over the years, to the point where my shelves were double-stacked, causing books to pile up around my shelf and amass throughout my closet.

            Once I entered high school, I barely read for fun. I was involved in many activities, so most of my free time was spent at sports practices, games, music rehearsals, studying, or doing homework. However, taking three years of honors literature sparked my interest in literary classics. I secretly enjoyed reading those standard works for HS English courses: To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, 1984, Julius Caesar, A Tale of Two Cities, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Frankenstein, etc. I enjoyed studying those authors, their themes, the characters, the plot, and essentially every element of that piece of literature. At times, I really connected to the stories (e.g. I related certain events to my own life and relationships). I bought copies of those classics, along with many others that interested me or ones I wanted to read one day.

            My sophomore year of college is when I not only rediscovered my love for reading, but when my true passion and desire to read began. After watching The Theory of Everything and The Danish Girl that summer, and after having seen the first Fantastic Beasts movie that fall, I fell in love with Eddie Redmayne. I decided I wanted to read the plays and novels that many of his film and theatre roles were adapted from. I first saw the 2012 adaptation of Les Misérables my sophomore year of high school, which was also the first of Eddie’s movies I had ever watched. It quickly became one of my favorites and I bought a copy of the Les Mis novel because I loved the film so much. So, I decided I’d give Les Mis another chance/

            I tried starting “the brick” (yes, some people do call it that!) many times after I first bought it, but never got very far. However, after seeing Beasts in 2016, I decided I would finally read it after owning it for over three years. Looking back, choosing a 1000+ page novel as the first book to read after not having read much in years was probably not the wisest idea on my part. Regardless, I became absolutely immersed in the story. The Les Mis movie and stage productions are brilliant, of course, but I was amazed by the many layers of Victor Hugo’s original story. Hugo writes so beautifully and descriptively; all the main and secondary characters’ backstories are much more deep and complicated than what a screen or stage can portray. Hugo interweaves history, religion, love, politics, poetry, and philosophy within the main plot, so the novel doesn’t just come across as a novel. I was sometimes brought to tears by various moments throughout the story. Reading Les Mis soon became my one of my favorite pastimes; I would read it between classes, before bed, or whenever I had spare time. The more I read Les Mis, the more I realized how much I missed reading in general. I forgot the feeling of losing one’s self in a story and the inability to stop reading something you genuinely enjoy.

            At the beginning of 2017, I decided that my New Year’s resolution would be to read more. It was a simple goal, but I just knew I wanted to make reading a priority in my life again. The afternoon I set that goal for myself, I eagerly Googled a list of classics and jotted title after title down. The works of Shakespeare, Austen, Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, Dickens, the Brontës, and many others filled my page. For the first time in years, I felt truly excited about the idea of reading for pleasure again. I welcomed the challenge of reading (sometimes daunting) classic literature.

            A few months after setting my resolution goal, I added a second major in English alongside my first major. Before I officially added the second major, I remember browsing through the course catalog and landing upon the English major pages. I was so intrigued by the courses offered and the genres of literature one could study: Arthurian, Romantic, Victorian, Shakespeare, history of the English language, etc. Taking these courses meant I would have the opportunity to read many of the classics on my TBR while also studying the novels in depth. One of my English teachers in HS once told me she could see me majoring in English when I got to college. Her words always  stuck with me, and were what strongly convinced me to declare the second major.

            Today, my passion for reading is definitely the strongest it’s ever been. Since I set that 2017 reading goal for myself, I’ve physically written down every book on my TBR that I’ve read. Lately I’ve realized that since winter 2016, I’ve read about 200 books! My TBR list continues to grow and I’m constantly finding new books that interest me between social media, libraries, and bookstores. When I worked at my local library, I was introduced to so many different authors and was constantly presented with so many interesting books. I love talking about reading and books with my parents, both of whom are also avid readers. Over the past few years I also developed a dream of working in a publishing house, a dream that I am now determined to finally pursue.

 

(Photo was taken by me)