I had to write this for a class, and I thought I would be good to share it here:

Why I Read:
Ever since childhood, reading was something I loved. Like most kids, my parents started reading to me at a young age. Mostly, it was Little Golden Books, the Berenstain Bears, and nursery rhymes. I also loved the red and white Disney storyteller cassette tapes, where you could read along with them in your book. Then I learned to read for myself. My hungry mind would devour The Babysitter’s Club and Goosebumps novels like potato chips. The American Girls series was also a favorite of mine. For the most part, I was just reading literary junk food. The Babysitter’s Club is not all that memorable as a series, and also seems a bit anti-feminist by today’s standards. Goosebumps was actually well written for it’s audience and R.L. Stine created some memorable stories, like Night of the Living Dummy. My parents were very encouraging of my reading, but did not do much to challenge me as a reader. I remember wanting to read The Hobbit when I was in the second grade, and my Dad said no because it was over five hundred pages long. He probably had a point, but it wouldn’t have stopped me from trying!
I read my first “grown up” book, A Little Princess, in the fourth grade. My mother recommended it when she saw it in the classroom, and it was a wonderful recommendation. At over two hundred pages, it was the longest book I’d ever read at the time. I consider it to be one of the books that have most shaped me as a reader. The first chapter of it brought me in immediately. I could see Sarah Crewe’s world so vividly in my mind, it seemed like the real world did not exist while I was reading it. The characters seemed so real and well defined, and I cared about what happened to them. Such qualities attracte me to the books I love. It helped me to define what good literature is. If I find that my main memory of reading a book is where I happened to be sitting at the time, I probably did not enjoy the book.
I do not read merely as a way to relax, but as a way to experience a different world. Fantasy and sci-fi have been some of my favorites since childhood. Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Anne Mcaffrey’s Pern are two examples of well crafted settings. Both could easily be mistaken for our world, but they are not (Pern is a whole different planet). If the reader can easily picture the world of the author, then the author has succeeded. If a book can’t transport me to a new and interesting place, it is just not doing it’s job right. Characters are also important to me. If I just do not like or understand any of the characters, I usually give up on the book. The characters do not even need to be likeable, just well written. Miss Minchin in A Little Princess is hardly likeable, but is a formidable opponent for Sara, and that is why the character is enjoyable to read.
Style is also important to me when reading a book. I did not enjoy reading Frankenstein in high school because of how it was written. I had to do something I had never done before to get through it: read the Sparknotes. I should not have to do that in order to read a book. If I do have to look up notes just to be able to break through the style barrier, chances are I will not stick with the novel. However, Frankenstein still contains a good story. Style gives you a feel for the personalities of the characters. Stephen King does a great job of this. He makes sure you get into the individual thought patterns of his characters. The main villain will always read a bit differently than the protagonist. King’s ability to do that was very evident in Rose Madder. Seeing into the mind of the main villain was incredibly disturbing for me. It was every bit as uncomfortable as it should have been. Seeing into the mind of the protagonist was far less frightening. I could sympathize with them quite easily. That is what good writing is.
As a college student, I do not have much time to actually read for myself. Reading for class takes up all of that time. If I want to read a book I either wait for Summer or Winter break, or listen to the audio book (believe it or not, it is actually quicker that way). I do tend to favor listening to audio books over actually reading these days. There are so many books that I want to read, so it gets kind of frustrating that I cannot read them yet. I also seem to let the internet and movies distract me from reading. It took my laptop crashing and having to be sent in to the Geek Squad for a week and a half to get me to finally sit down and read some of the original Sherlock Holmes stories. I still love to read, I just do a lot less of it at the moment.

sometimes to divert my mind....