HOW I READ

As you prepare to read your first substantial piece of literature, I want you to begin a kind of self-examination of how you are as a reader and what role books have played in your life. The goal here is to think about how we evolve as readers (how we used to approach reading compared to how we approach them now, for example).

What is interesting about our evolution as readers is that with the rare exception, most of us begin our lives as passionate book lovers (if you don’t believe me, read a book to children and watch how spooky their focus is). It is only after we accumulate certain experiences that the need to satisfy our imaginations through the written word diminishes. Is this the case with you?

There are many ways to approach this blog post. Here are a few questions you may want to ask yourself to get the ball rolling:

• When and how did your relationship with literature begin?
• What purpose or role have books played in your life?
• What satisfaction do you get from a book that you don’t get from a movie? A TV show? Or vice versa.
• Do you learn from a book you read in the same way you learn from a class you take?
• What do we get from other modes of entertainment that we don’t get from a book?

Remember, you don’t have to answer the above questions one by one; you are more than welcome to examine this theme of reading in your life from any perspective you want, and in any order you choose.