Reading as a Kid Versus Reading as an Adult
I’ve mentioned this time and time again on my blog but I’ll say it once more, I’ve always been a reader. However, I haven’t always been the reader I am today.
Reading as a kid, and as a teenager, is much different than reading as an adult (I am currently 22-years-old), at least it has been for me. As a kid, reading for me was fun – a leisurely activity – and something I would often do to pretend I was living in a different world (I wanted to live in the world of The Magic Tree House series more than anything). When I was younger, probably between the ages of 10 and 14, reading was something I always looked forward to doing whether I was reading in the morning, after school, before bed, or on the weekends. Although, this changed once I was in high school.
Now, don’t get me wrong when I entered high school I didn’t immediately hate reading. I still loved it, however, there was something about reading for English class that I didn’t like. Those who know me may have just dropped their jaw reading that because I’m someone who has always loved English classes. Regardless, there was something about having to read a book within a specific timeframe that make me not enjoy it. Reading suddenly wasn’t a leisurely activity anymore and it became something I had to do, not wanted to.
In high school I found myself reading less even when I wasn’t taking English classes. I guess I had just lost my passion and had no desire anymore. Besides The Fault in Our Stars (and most of John Green’s books) I seriously can’t remember a single book I read in high school outside of English class. The weirdest part about this is that I didn’t even dislike any book I did read for English class. I loved To Kill a Mockingbird, I loved The Book Thief, and I loved Frankenstein (those are just the main books that come to mind) – I just didn’t like the timeframe.
I did, eventually get out of this funk.
In college, despite not having much time between going to classes, doing assignments, and working, I did start to read for fun again and haven’t stopped. The types of books that I was reading changed though. I found myself (and still continue to) drifting away from reading young adult books and became more interested in non-fiction books and fiction books geared more towards adults.
I will always love young adult books, and I will always love reading but I won’t be surprised if there is a time during my mid to late 20s, and adulthood in general, where my style of reading changes again and if there are periods where I can’t read as much or am not motivated to.
But for now, I flipping as many pages as I can!
Paige Petrovsky 