Reader’s Profile
The first quarter of the school year is practically over. I think during Cyber English I have realized a lot of what kind of reader I am, and what kind of reader I want to be. I love reading, which means that I’ve already know for a while what kind of reader I am, but I also want to improve my reading over the year.
I have read many different stories this quarter, mainly books, but also other types. The books that I read have been Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter and The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I am not finished with The Time Traveler’s Wife but I plan to finish it in the next few weeks. Also I have read parts of the Sheboygan Falls Newspaper and The Talon every time is comes out. Not only do we have to read in Cyber English, but we have to read in other classes too. We read a lot in US History. Every night we are supposed to go home and read a section or half of a section at the least. My favorite stories that I have read were the nonfiction books because they draw my attention in much better that the newspaper or my history book.
Sometimes teachers pick out stories we have to read, and other times they let us read our own stories. Without a doubt I like picking out my own books better than books the teacher picks out for us. When I pick out a book I read the back right away to see if it sounds interesting or not. Also I ask some of my friends (a lot of my friends love to read) if they have read it and whether or not it is a good book. When teacher pick out book for me, I have no say in whether or not I want to read it. They don’t let me read the back of it or let me ask my friends. Though usually the books they pick out are very good books, I still like choosing my own.
The two books I read this quarter were Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy and The Time Traveler’s Wife. They are both nonfiction, yet incredibly different kind of books. I felt that Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy is meant for kids younger than me because it was a really easy read, and I couldn’t relate to it. The Time Traveler’s Wife I thought was a better kind of book for me. It was much harder to read, I couldn’t relate to it, but it had me hooked for quite a while. The books I read affected my reading because when I was reading Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy I wasn’t paying very close attention because it was somewhat boring and my mind was wandering at times. Though when I was reading The Time Traveler’s Wife I was paying much more close attention and I enjoyed reading it much more.
Every book has a theme, whether the theme is really evident or not, is up to the book. The book Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy has a theme of at the end, no matter who you are or what you’re trying to do, if you all work together you can achieve anything you set your mind to. This helped me a lot because I’m the kind of person who usually likes to work alone on things because I think I can get them done faster when I don’t have any distractions. The other book I reading, The Time Traveler’s Wife, I have not yet found a theme to. I am still in the process of reading it so I’m hoping that the theme is yet to come.
This quarter I have read two different types of book. One of them was about action and the other one was about romance. I enjoy changing up my selection of books so I can experience different types of stories and situations. For second quarter I plan on reading horror and maybe even some suspense and mystery. I already have a book for second quarter called All Unquiet Things which from reading the back, definitely sounds like a horror book. When I’m finished with this book I want to read The Lovely Bones because one of my friends was just reading it and said it was a really good book. Also it seems to be a mystery which I have not read any of this year yet.
I have always loved reading, so I have pretty much been reading all my life. Since I read a lot, I have learned to be a good speller. I think the easiest part of reading for me is the actual reading part. Instead of looking at each word carefully, I have learned to be able to skim over them and still be reading. The hardest part though, is to look deeper into the book than just the words, and really understand the meaning of it. The first time I ever tried to look deeper into books what this year when we were on our short fiction unit. I didn’t understand what to do at first, but I think at the end I got a pretty good hang of it. Now I just have to learn how to do that with novels and long stories and not only short fiction.
I have a really bad habit on determining which book I want to read. Usually I look at the title and the cover, and if I don’t look interesting I probably won’t read it. They say “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but if the author writes a good book, I’m sure they are creative enough to come up with a good title and cover. I don’t think I have ever put a book down after starting it. There have definitely been times when I thought about putting it down, but I’m always afraid that I would put it down before the good part actually comes, and I would miss reading a really good book. Some times I am glad that I didn’t put it down, and other times I’m really mad that I didn’t put it down.
In my opinion, what makes a book “good” is when I’m really drawn into it and can’t seem to put it down. Of course every book has their boring parts, but a good book can find a way to keep you interested even during those parts. They should have an interesting plot, at least one dynamic character, and have a theme to the book. A “bad” book I think has none or maybe just one of those aspects. Also it probably has too many boring parts and doesn’t draw you in very much.
In Cyber English we read on the computer a lot, and some technology lets you download books to mobile devices. Though it is different than holding an actual book in your hand, I believe it is the same type of reading. It is still a book and you are still reading, even if it is on a different type of device. It is a different type of form than actually holding a book in your hand but you are having the exact same experience.
I hope this helps you understand what type of reading I am and want to be, because while writing it, it even helped me get a little bit better understand.
