The Book Blogs - Introduction

Consider this my blog intro for this series I'm now starting to write. I've decided to create and follow through with my own reading regimen. I'll pick a book, and as I get through it, I'll blog about reading it, comment on it, etc.

Here's my deal, and the reason for starting this series. I'm a teacher, and I've NEVER been very fond of books, and to me, a teacher SHOULD be fond of books. I love the idea of being well-read. I love the idea of being able to finish a book quickly and understand its content, its plot, or whatever. I love that one's vocabulary can greatly increase, not to mention support one's writing ability. But I've never been a big fan of books, and here's why:

When I was in school, from middle all through high school (Oy, in high school it was worse!), reading stories and books was both required and expected. I remember being in my reading class and having to work on a worksheet in the textbook's accompanying workbook, and filling in the blanks that would, if you answered correctly, recall the plot in detail of the story you just read. I've always been a slow reader. Sitting in class, of course you're seldom thinking of your own stuff; you're always thinking of what your friends are doing, thinking, and wondering what they think of what you're doing. It seemed everyone finished faster than me. Now though I know now that doesn't necessarily mean they did a "good job" on the activity, but it made me feel incompetent. Why are you still reading? They're already finished, I'd think to myself. It always felt like some unspoken competition, a competition that I'd never win.

Another time, also in middle school, I remember that we each had a thick textbook called Literature. We were given a homework assignment to read some pages. Of course, I didn't do the homework. The next day? Pop quiz! Oh, shit! It was one of those short, 5-question, multiple choice quizzes on handouts you weren't allowed to write on. Of course, I failed it with crashing colors. While sitting at a table with a few other peers, with a pen in my hand and my head down on my desk in embarrassment, I wrote "I suck" on what I thought was the clean sheet of loose leaf paper I used to cover my answer sheet. When I finished writing, I raised my head, and to my horror, I realized I had written "I suck" on the quiz paper itself, the one we were not allowed to write on. Of course the teacher picked it up, read it aloud, and sent me to the office. I had almost received a "pink slip" (a referral). In that school, if you got 3 pink slips, you were expelled.That would've been my first. I ended up getting detention, not a referral.

All that because I didn't want to read, because everyone read faster than me, because the book was too thick, because I was a slow reader...blah blah blah blah.

Then came high school.

In high school, we had the Accelerated Reader program. I think we started using it when I became a freshman. I remember getting a Summer Reading List. Upon getting it, I thought, What the hell?! I need to read for the entire Summer too?!

If you don't know what the AR program is, well, the way it worked for us was that we'd read a book, and then take a computer-based test on it. The tests were ALWAYS multiple choice, and either 10 or 20 questions. No True/False; only ABCD. But here's the fine print they didn't tell us about: whether it was a 10- or 20-question test you were taking, you had to get at least 70% correct to get ANY credit. If you got a 65 out of 20 questions, you were given NO credit. That was bullshit! The AR program, consequently, only fueled my grudge against reading. I guess when it came to the AR program, we were also a college prep high school, so standards were very high to get us reading substantial books and writing papers of up to 5 pages long, which to us, was a lot. We had Advanced Placement courses (AP) that required us to read several books per semester, and even more in the summer. Because of AR, I remember reading several books, some of which I enjoyed, others I didn't:. Some I finished, some I didn't. 

-Upton Sinclair's The Jungle 
-Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
-Pearl Buck's The Good Earth
-Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
-Toni Morrison's Beloved
-Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels
-Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima
-Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart
-Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country

Okay. I know I've gone on some serious tangents now, but really, because of my middle school and high school struggles with the reading programs, my reading speed, and my frequent failures when it came to reading, it's never been a hobby of mine. Hell, when I'm reading a book, I look through the number of chapters, and I measure how long it'll take me to read each chapter by counting how many pages I'll have to turn. Pathetic, huh? Now as an adult, and as a teacher no less, I'm going to give myself a goal: read books I want to read and write about what I'm reading. It's no longer a task. I have to change my perception of books. After all, reading should be fun, right?