My Reading Life
I enjoy reading. I always have and I always will. But recently I haven’t the time for it. I remember when I was back in Grade 5 and 6, I would go to the local library, borrow a long novel, get comfortable and indulge in it for 2 hours on a nice Sunday afternoon. Ever since secondary school, however, I have had less free time resulting in a decrease in the amount of books I read. However, I still try and read a novel now and then. A recent book I’ve read is ‘The Man with the Compound Eyes’ by Wu Ming-Yi. It’s a great book exploring a mainly untouched idea and I definitely plan to track down some of his other books in the future.
I absolutely agree that reading is important, especially reading good books. I feel like I am always more knowledgeable after reading a book. Whether that’s because I know the ending of it or knowing that I’ve broadened my horizons greatly . It feels like next time I do a piece of writing, I can take on all the information and writing skills in the previous books I have read and use them in my writing tasks or stories.
Dylan Thomas’ poem explains the exact reason of why people read books. To be devoured by them, or to devour them one by one. Some people enjoy fiction, some people enjoy comedy, romance or mystery, but as Dylan Thomas says, it’s all just words carefully and expertly put together that can create a whole world by themselves without any picture.
Neil Gaiman’s speech says that reading fiction or just reading in general broadens your horizons and makes you more intelligent. He also found out that reading fiction helps innovation. I can concur with this statement as I know that I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t read all the books I had read. Scientists have also discovered the amount of books read to a baby can have a drastic effect on the baby’s intelligence in their future.
So I borrowed ‘King Dork’ by Frank Portman for my Wider Reading task and it seems interesting. I haven’t read much into it yet but from what I can tell, the main concept of growing up and being bullied in school seems like an overused idea. This being said though, the mystery surrounding the car crash does spice things up a bit. The way it was written is also a bit bland and repetitive.
If I could take 10 books onto a desert island:
- Children of the Lamp Series
A wonderful and creative series of stories exploring the idea of magic mixed in with the real world. For the purposes of the decision though, I would choose the first 2 books out of 7 as, in my opinion, they are the most interesting and exciting. The Akhenaten Adventure, The Blue Djinni of Babylon.
3. The Man with the Compound Eyes
This may well be the recency effect coming into play but I enjoyed this book thoroughly while I was reading it. It is not a typical fiction book where you expect a clear complication and ending but it is a treat to read.
4. The Red Pyramid
Another book about magic entwined with the real world, however, it’s just as good. Also written by famous author, Rick Riordan.
5. The Deltora Quest series
This series was one of my childhood favourites and I wouldn’t mind revisiting those Sunday afternoons spent on reading these. I will only include the first 2 books in my list.
7. The Goffins series
An extremely obscure and unknown series of short novels that I found one day at the library. This was another one of my childhood/primary school favourites and I would love to revisit them as well. I will also only include the first 2 books in my list.
10. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
You may hate me for saying this, but this is the only Harry Potter book I have read. In consolation though, I haven’t watched any of the Harry Potter movies.
Despite this, I loved this book even though I had little prior knowledge to it. I could see the love and expertise poured into the making of this book.
