Riley Ponton

EDT423

8/25/20

Life as a Reader

Reading for me is a way to escape into a world that isn’t plagued by the same problems as my

own. Being able to put myself into the shoes of Frodo as he travelled across Middle Earth was almost

cathartic. Destined for so much, coming from humble beginnings. Or Aragorn, a man who is plagued by

anxiety over his position as King, so he avoids it like the plague while still finding ways to make himself

useful has always been relatable, and I can find solace in the fact that if these characters can fix their

problems, make their worlds a better place, I can too. Reading allows me to momentarily rest my weary

heart and mind, instead investing in something that makes me feel all the same.

I love reading. And this love for words has led me down a path of loving writing, as well. Crafting my own

stories brings about a satisfaction that I have yet to find a match for. This love of reading was borne of

my father, who above all else, made sure I was a literate and well-spoken young man. Every year from

about the first or second grade, to high school, I had annual summer reading lists. Starting slow with

books including the Harry Potter series, the Hobbit, and other kid-friendly material, leading into more

dense, perhaps controversial pieces such as Animal Farm, Ender’s Game, Fahrenheit 451, Dracula, and

Slaughterhouse Five (that last one confused me as a middle schooler). From there, I dipped into genres

of all kinds (though fantasy fiction remains my favorite), like graphic novels as silly as Bones to serious as

Maus (which I now use as my argument against graphic novels being considered “non-literature”), as

well as straight comic books, getting lost in the Star Wars Extended Universe and the Dark Horse

universe, a universe that is a golden standard of writing among other comic series’.
Reading has gifted me such a colorful vocabulary to use in my own writing (as I’m sure was my fathers

goal), and in conversation. Being able to cite quotes from Bradbury’s dystopian sci-fi novels, especially in

the midst of a global pandemic and rising racial and political tensions is not only useful, but really shows

how much thought goes into all of the stories I read. Being able to read “The Sun Also Rises” and

compare it to other Hemingway novels in class always granted me and my classmates greater insight,

and just felt good. It felt good, to be good at reading, as I was quickly finding out that my “language arts

won’t help me in real life” mentality was both not correct, and in fact a harmful mentality.

However, in recent years, I am finding my drive to read dwindling. I used to be able to breeze through

the Hunger Games series’ in a matter of weeks, and yet now I struggle to get past a few pages. I don’t

like audiobooks, as my desire to hold and smell the books I read trumps the desire to just listen. It may

very well have to do with my classes requiring reading, and having my reading be graded gets I the way

of my full enjoyment. I hope and suspect that this will change in the coming years, as I will need to

refresh my knowledge of the books I love so much to better serve my students.