BS

I would consider myself a rather slow reader whose bad eyesight and lack of practice hinders his ability to read for pleasure and comprehend dense text. Plagued by frequent procrastination (mostly on the computer or spacing out), I find it hard to read for long periods of time. It seems as though the article from The Atlantic (Is Google Making Us Stupid?) accurately depicts my reading skills, for I find myself much more prone to skimming myriad Wikipedia articles than to reading a novel. While I do enjoy books that pertain to subjects of my interest (philosophy, economics, sports…) I enjoy reading short stories much more than reading long novels because they tend to be less dense and more action-packed. I tend to fly through light and fast paced books/stories like The Hobbit and Harrison Bergeron while texts like The Federalist #51 and Plato’s Republic generally require me to frequently reread sections. When I am assigned a book for school, I usually do not finish the book (although I want to) because I put it off for the last minute and it ends up being too much for me to finish on the last day before the due date. While I try to finish these books after they are due, I am often assigned another book that I must start before I finish the preceding book.

School’s effect on my reading has good and bad qualities. It gives students a chance to experience different genres and authors that they wouldn’t necessarily be exposed to otherwise. Some students, like me, might not read at all if they were not assigned reading by school. Therefore, students who are “supposed” to read for school are exposed to reading and practice their reading skills for school. School also sharpens students’ comprehension skills and their appreciation for complex writing and prose by exposing them to the different variations of literature. On the other hand, school can often force biases and opinions of teachers upon students that can ruin a student’s natural opinions. It also assigns books that student might hate. This would take away from their potential pleasure reading of books that may benefit them.