Ben Cardenas

My History of Literature
  

          Ive always had a bit of trouble when it comes to reading. Im not illiterate, I’m just a little dyslexic. My father says that he has it too and his dad as well, so a safe assumption would be that it’s genetic. As a child my mom read to me most of the time only because my dad was on deployment for most of my early childhood. On rare occasions, my dad would sometimes read to me if he didn’t fall asleep before me. When ever they would read to me though they usually had something in mind, but sometimes I would get to decide on a book myself which would always be Dr. Seuss related. My mom would buy both her and I a copy of a book and we’d read it together.
          When my parents read to me I was still very young so they didn’t make me read along with them. It wasn't until I turned eight that they started to make me read along with them. Then the fun was truly over. I’ve never been the strongest reader so I had a lab class in high school that would help train us on that. The main problem for me was loosing focus whenever I was reading because its rare that anything in books ever appeal to me. Eventually I found that replacing the main character with myself is a major ego booster, and it helps keep me interested in books. I’m really not that arrogant to think that something is interesting only if I'm in it I just find that it helps for that situation. Even if I do find books that are interesting to me I would still subconsciously find a way to break focus which is why sometimes, if the option were available, I would listen to audio books. 
          There have been only a couple books I’ve heard through audio and they were “Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck” and “Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.” Audio books were so easy to sit through because it’s all I’d have to do is listen. There’s just something about staring at a screen or paper when trying to do something educational that causes me to lose focus every five seconds. However, those books were truly interesting in either case. Books that really appeal to me usually have sad endings, but a great moral. Another book I really enjoyed was “The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.” It had many of the same elements as the other two books, but this one in particular had a very dark storyline and at the same time it was still very interesting. If I were to ever have children myself, I’d definitely recommend these books to them, but maybe when they turn about fourteen or so because again, these books can get pretty dark.
          My children would definitely be reading in my house not only because my parents made me do it, but because i thanked them later and I do think it has strengthened my reading skill significantly. I figured that if I worked for me it can definitely work for them. Plus its definitely a requirement out in the real world. Reading skills reflect back on mostly everything that is done when working or in high school/college. Whenever I took tests I would never ever read the full passage that was given when answering comprehension questions. Instead I would look back on the passage frequently and this was all because I was impatient. It’s important to maintain a strong reading level because based on the experiences I’ve had in college so far, It’s now a fact that it’s definitely going to play a vital role to my success here.