Josh Hill
Literacy Theory and Practice
Due 2/21/2011
My Reading Autobiography
My reading life comes like life, in waves. I don’t really remember the first books I read, except maybe Dr. Seuss and Richard Scarry. I know that my mom would always take us to the Book Mobile, which was a bus that took books to the rural areas of Lane County. One of her best friends was the driver and a librarian so we always had books in the house. Most of my younger days we did not have a TV, so most of my days where spent outside. I vaguely remember reading in my bed late at night with a flashlight. I don’t remember what I was reading at the time but I must have enjoyed it because I wouldn’t go to bed with out trying to sneak a few pages.
As an adolescent I was into several different genres including Tolkien and choose your own adventures. I vaguely remember the hardy boys but no specifics. My parents split up between the sixth and seventh grade and I moved in with my mother for two years. I am sure I did most of my reading at that time because I didn’t have to many friends and we still where not allowed to watch to much TV. During high school I moved back in with my dad. I didn’t do much reading then because I had to many other things going on. I also had free reign of a TV and spent a lot of time in front of it. I know that most kids are supposed to read some of the classics in high school but I don’t think we read much. I didn’t read Animal Farm until my early thirties. I may have started Lord of the Flies but I don’t think I ever finished it. I think we read mostly excerpts and shorts. I think I read a few Poe, Poems. The Tell Tale Heart is still one of my favorites. I do remember seeing the movie, All Quite on the Western Front and I thing we may have read part of it. I really enjoyed the movie but I don’t remember the reading. I also read Jane Eyre at some point and really enjoyed it. I tried some other similar novels such as Pride and Prejudice but they didn’t get me like Charlotte Bronte.
My first year of college at Lane Community College and didn’t read too many novels. There I took several acting classes and read a few scripts. This was a great experience. I really enjoyed Neil Simon and learned several scenes from the Odd Couple. I also took a great Literature class where we read short pieces of great literature and discussed the imagery and hidden meanings of many great poems and novels. I enjoyed deciphering these pieces and although I don’t remember what we read I can still identify many commonly used metaphors.
The next year I transferred to OSU and because of my previous experience in a literature class I took a poetry class. I was sadly disappointed because all we had to read the pieces and take test that proved that I had read them. One time I even asked the professor about how winter was used as a metaphor for the end of life, and he told me sure that was true but that we didn’t have to know that because it wouldn’t be on the test. I didn’t take any more lit classes after that but it didn’t totally ruin me on reading. I didn’t read much more through the next four years except for text-books.
The summer after I graduated I moved to Salem and lived with my grand mother. I didn’t have too many friends and she has a great library. I spent most of the summer going through the complete Sherlock Homes catalogue that she has in a two-book box set. It is beautiful and she has promised it to me when she dies. It will be one of my most cherished objects for obvious reasons. Over the next couple of years I became more social and read less. A friend whom I thought was such a bohemian eventually turned me on to Jack Kerouac. I read everything he wrote that I could get my hands on. Kerouac really made me want to travel and see more of the country. I also found the book bin and started buying more books.
I read the first in the Gunslinger series by Stephen King and really enjoyed it. I continued to read the rest of them but was a little disappointed when he ended them without much conclusion. I also got out of a relationship the complete Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Again I was disappointed when I finished the last book and Douglas Adams died. Despite this I still prefer series and like the fact that I can count on the next book to be quality. I also tried to read some of the Hillerman books but I feel that they are two repetitive.
I think that it is interesting that the only books that I have read more than once are the Lord of the Rings trilogy. They are just so immersive and I will probably read them again before I die. I have found that I really enjoy specific writers and tend to stick to them. Many people recommend writers and books to me but I tend to discount them. I have read some recommendations that I thought where terrible.
Currently I am readying Neil Stephenson and am starting to get a sense of what I like in a book. Quality writing, with interesting characters, that are not always set in the same places. I think that most of them involve journeys of some kind that appeal to my adventurous side. I am also currently interested in math related themes. I think this because I want to teach math and am excited about the future.
