Writers as Readers

Whenever I read, it usually depends on my mood.  Sometimes I read in the tub, sometimes I read while eating dinner, about to go to bed…  Other times I read in the middle of class when I’m bored/don’t want to pay attention.  I can never plan to read, you know?  I just have to pick it up and start, I can’t think, “Okay, when I go home, I’m going to read!”  I can’t do that.  Because then it’ll feel like a chore.  I only read when I’m in the mood to read.  Or if a new book has come out that interests me.

My favorite genre is fantasy/adventure.  I love reading about adventures in far off places, or about things that wouldn’t normally happen.  I think I like this genre so much because I actually crave an adventure, away from home, and doing something extraordinary.

The first time I had ever been so excited to read a book was when I first heard about the Gone series.  The book was so big to me, but I wanted to know so badly about what would happen.  I think I even began to admire the characters, or pity them.  They were in such a horrible situation, with children dying and becoming scared and violent.  But the children were also very strong, attempting to move forward with the horrible hand fate had dealt to them.  The book on the total opposite spectrum on this scale would be Twilight.  I had to do those stupid reading logs in middle school, and no books were interesting to me at the time, so I read it.  It was a daily 30 minute torture.  I had to sludge through half the entire book until anything got interesting.  It was just awful to me.  Needless to say, I never did finish the series.

I don’t remember the first book I ever read, but I do know which books I read the most.  When I was very small, I had many books with fairy tales in them, so I would read those a lot.  I read The Little Mermaid a lot when I was slightly older and could read better, because the writing style was more difficult.  I also had this book of fairy stories with beautiful illustrations of fairies.  I loved the book so much and read it all the time.  I want to read the rest of Hans Christian Anderson’s stories, but I don’t know where to get copies of his stories… 

My favorite book series really depends upon my mood at the present moment.  Sometimes Harry Potter is my favorite, then it’s Maximum Ride, then it’s the Gone series.  All these book series are my favorite because they deal with high impact adventure and themes that aren’t always human.  I’ve always wanted to go on a dangerous adventure with dragons and magic, or being able to fly, so I read these books to try to live through them.