Blog 1

Being an AP English language student requires a lot of reading and writing skills. It forces you to go beyond what is required in just reading a book or just writing an essay. Much more is expected from you. I like taking on challenges such as these and in the end feeling good about the finished outcome. In all of my English classes through the years I have learned that to be successful, you need to be smarter than what you read and to be able to put yourself in the authors point of view. By doing so this allowed me to learn all the different facets of life knowledge.
When I read , it usually takes me a while to finish a book. Not because I am a slow reader but because I can not stand finishing a book with unanswered questions. Finishing a book knowing every detail, plot, climax, ect makes me feel accomplished. One of those job well done feelings. Every book has a story, obviously. I like to think of it as every book has a story but every book has a meaning as well. There was reasoning and thinking that the author had to go through while he or she was writing it, that’s the part I like to find out and that is one reason I believe it means to be a reader.
Reading for me isn’t just about leaning new things or adding on to my vocabulary, reading also teaches simple things that can help you in other areas in your life. Now I am not talking about reading the “How to…” section in the Glamour magazine, yes reading makeup tips and weight loss articles is always something that a girl can use to benefit herself, but I am thinking more deeply than that. I read an article once, about a young Amish school girl who along with other Amish school girls were kept hostage in a schoolhouse by a local truck driver. The girls name I cant remember, but the article said that the girl told the truck driver to take her own life in exchange to let the other schoolgirls go free. At the end of the article it said that the truck driver ended up shooting all of the girls. Including the girl who offered to give up her life for the other girls to be set free. After reading this article, it forced me to think about my own life and what it means to have a loving heart. It helped me become that much more of a better person.
Reading takes a lot of impacts on my life, school readings, novel readings, newspaper articles, even magazines. They all seem to find a way to connect what I read to how I live. Whatever it is that I read, understanding, relating and incorporating the text into every day life is what being a reader means to me.
Its Important to understand what is going on in our world today, you can not know everything by watching TV. Reading helps with this, not only because its more personal but its more informational’ which makes reading that much more important.
I love to read and I love knowing endings to stories, figuring out the authors style of writing and most of all being able to say I read that. If I had to choose anything about being a better reader it would be, to become a better analyzer.