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Vincent Gotauco

Professor Beadle

English 114A

27 September 2021

The Reading Experience

I think it is fair to say that nowadays, kids grow wanting to use smartphones or tablets

and play games rather than read a book. When I was younger, I was already like this, a child who

would much rather be playing games on my ipad instead of reading a book. Reading a book at

the time was something that never came to mind and was something I would prefer not to be

doing. I would really only read books during English class or study hall. I actually thought that

reading was kind of dumb and if it didn’t have pictures, it would bore the hell out of me. After an

experience I had at my aunt’s house where she made me read instead of playing video games, I

changed in a sense. I had more broader outlook on things and did not think of reading as

something that is stupid. This experience helped shape who I am because it changed the way I

view things.

Throughout most of my childhood, I would stay at my aunt’s house over the summer as

me and my sister were too young to stay at home alone. My parents had work until around 6 pm

so during the day, me and my sister would stay at my aunt’s house. Unlike my parents, my aunt

was pretty strict and never really liked the idea of playing video games just because you're bored.

One thing she always told me was “work before you play”. Since it was summer and I didn’t

have any summer work to do, my aunt told me to read a book. She told me, “you’re not going to

just play games here. If you want to play, you have to read a book first”. When she told me that,

I obviously obeyed but in my mind, I was thinking to myself how it was going to be a long and
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boring summer. I had a playstation at home and I wished I could just stay at home and play

videogames with my friends. I had some “Diary of the Wimpy Kid” books at home and was what

I brought to read but my aunt didn’t let me read that kind of book so the next day, I brought

“Harry Potter”. At first, I was pretty bored from reading and would lose focus. I couldn’t really

focus on the book too much and it bore me. With my ipad next to me, it was really tempting to

not use it so every now and then I would just use it for a minute or so in between reading. I think

with a lot of stories, the beginning usually isn’t that interesting so it took a while for me to get

hooked to the story. I eventually got really interested in the story and before I knew it, I was just

sitting there reading for a decent amount of time. I realized that there is joy in reading too.

Reading a book isn’t stupid and can be very beneficial. You can learn things from reading books

or just simply enjoy the story. I realize that I shouldn’t be so fast to judge things.

Waves is a website that has a collection of essays written by different people. In the essay

“A Writer’s Journey”, the author has a similar experience as me. He mentions “flashy computer

games and an endless banquet of tv, videos and movies that became more accessible as time ran

on” (Tigney 123). In this quote, he is explaining how he used to read books but that was all

overshadowed by all of the new and available technology. It’s pretty similar in my case because I

didn’t like to read books since I could just use technology to entertain myself. He also mentions,

“every new piece of technology came with a new shift in my personality and preferences, a new

way of thinking and feeling” (Tigney 123). The author explains how new technology leads to

new changes in the way he thinks and does stuff. It’s the same in my case. New computer and

new ipad lead to me not wanting to do school work as much and not wanting to read books. The

author and I relate in the way where we were both surrounded by a lot of technology growing up
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so we didn’t really care for something like reading a book but eventually, an experience led to a

different perspective of books.

This experience where my aunt made me read books during my summer helped shape

who I am today. To be honest, reading books isn’t really something that I do that often today but

I’m more open minded about it than I was back then. When I was at my aunt’s house, reading a

book was the last thing I would want to do. I would think that reading was boring and pointless

to read. After reading “Harry Potter”, I realized that reading can be interesting. I realized that I

needed to be more open minded and that I shouldn’t be so quick to judge things. Because I

judged reading books, I would be quick to judge other things which would lead to questionable

decisions. After the experience, I became more open minded about things and I like trying new

things out more. From time to time, I’ll read a book if I get bored. I would’ve never liked to read

books or try new things and I believe that the experience I had at my aunt’s house is a big factor

in shaping how I am today.

I’m glad that my aunt was strict. If my parents just let me stay at home at the time, I

would just be playing video games and I think it would factor in shaping how I am today. I

learned to not judge things because you never know if you’ll like it. I realized that by reading

books at my aunt’s house. Although I don’t really read books that often nowadays, I think it

helped me be more open minded. I like to try a lot of new things and it has helped shape who I

am as a person. Reading is pretty important and I will never forget this experience where I had to

read.
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Works Cited

Tigney, Summer. “A Writer’s Journey”. WAVES 2021. Page 123