History of a Devoted Reader

History of a devoted reader My history of reading starts with some of my very first and favourite memories. I was very young when I first showed an interest in books. I remember always wanting to be able to read. When my mom was reading to me, I would always try to read along with her. I started reading aloud as soon as I could talk, repeating words my mom said and looking at the pictures and connecting them to the words. The first book I remember reading is called, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", by Eric Carle. This book was really fun to read, because everything the caterpillar ate was always repeated on the next page. As long as I could see the pictures I knew what the words would be. At the end of the book, the very hungry caterpillar got so big; he turned into a cocoon and came out as a beautiful butterfly. To this day what I remember specifically about this book and all the books my mom read to me was the different voices and sounds that my mom used when she was reading to me. With this book in particular, the ending was always said by both us in a "sing song" voice, "a beautiful butterfly". My first and favourite series when I was younger was, "Franklin the Turtle." I loved reading those with my mom and there were so many to choose from! Looking back, I realize now that many of the books were about Franklin having a problem and with the help of his friends, they would fix this problem and there was always a happy ending. When you're a young reader this type of book makes for a great read. When I was a little older and started reading on my own, I usually liked to read books about princes and princesses or books with heroes. I remember my first "big book" (as in, a book that is longer than 15 pages), was a big pink book filled with written versions of Disney's classic children's movies such as Cinderella and Bambi. Now that I am a more avid reader, I love to read fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries but I do not enjoy reading non-fiction. I simply can't concentrate on books with subjects that actually exist. From this collection of different genres, I have read many books that I loved. Many of these books were by Rick Riordan. He is my favourite author because of his writing style and how he twists Greek and now Egyptian mythology (from his newest series, "The Kane Chronicles") into his books. My second favourite author would be Christopher Paolini. I love his books, Eragon, Eldest and Brisingir. I believe there is also a fourth book but I have yet to find it. I do not understand how people can skip anything when they are reading. I have met a few people before who have told me that they like to skip to the end or skip over "boring" parts of the books they read and I just do not understand it. Maybe my not understanding is just due to the types of books I read where the author puts the biggest clues in the most seemingly insignificant places. Or maybe it is just my love of reading and I simply don't want to miss a single word. I also don't understand how someone can start reading a book in the middle of a series. Books are written in order to be read in order and once you start a series you should always try to finish it unless it's not a good book for you or some other reason. One great side effect of reading so much is I can read really fast. I once finished a 500 page book in one day. My mom is always looking to buy me the biggest books she can, because she knows how fast I read and wants my books to last more than two hours. So there it is. The History of the Devoted Reader, and I can guarantee that my history will lengthen. As I write this I keep looking towards my books and can't wait to get back into it!