I can remember being eleven years old and being obsessed with Percy Jackson. I loved learning about Greek mythology and reading about Percy fighting off monsters and going on adventures with his friends. At first, it was just the original series. Then it was the spin-off, Heroes of Olympus. Then it was two more spin-offs of the original spin-off (“Magnus Chase” and “The Trials of Apollo”).
There were some nights I didn’t sleep at all because I was so invested in the story. And then there were some days where I’d check out the next book at the library and the librarian would be like “Didn’t you just get a book yesterday?” and I would have to explain that I stayed up all night reading it. Each book built more and more on the world and characters. To this day, I still consider it to be one of my favorites book series/universes ever!
Reading started as something I was basically forced into. Of course, kids have to learn, so they’re forced to read in class and at home so that they can one day do it on their own. And then in second or third grade, I was required to participate in Accelerated Reading (AR) for school.
AR was basically just reading books and taking quizzes on them to make sure you actually read them. Each book you read had was a certain number of points based on how difficult the book was to read and how long it was. For reference, a Dr. Seuss book is 1 point if you get every question on the AR quiz correct. The first Percy Jackson book is 13 points. Each student had to reach a certain number of points every nine weeks, with everyone’s goal being slightly different depending on how strong of a reader they were. The average class goal was 25 to 40 points per nine weeks
I don’t know why, but I really liked getting points from reading. Most nine weeks, I doubled or even tripled my goal. By the end of AR (eighth grade), my average goal was 100 points or above every nine weeks, and I was still doubling it! I forget my complete point total, but by the time I stopped doing AR, it was over 1000.
Reading was such fun for me. Throughout elementary and middle school, I read hundreds of books. Reading was a huge part of my life. It was my escape.
That’s why it pains me to say that after I wasn’t required to do AR anymore, I stopped reading. Of course, there was the occasional new Percy Jackson spin-off book and class required reading, but I eventually stopped reading for fun all together.
Last year, I only read one book… and I didn’t even finish it. It was frustrating, because what happened to the girl who read the entire Harry Potter series in just three weeks in the 5th grade??
Reading got replaced with other things. The apps and games on my phone, Youtube and Netflix, and hanging out with friends. That fact on its own is fine, but it’s still kind of crazy to me. How could something I loved so much and that defined a lot of my life for a looooong time just disappear completely??
I’ve been trying to get back into reading. I finished a book this month and although it wasn’t very good, I’m still so happy I finished it.
I’m president of MSA’s book club now, so I have to read one book each month now. Hopefully, that will push me to get back to how I used to be able to read. I miss the joy that reading a good book used to give me and since this year has been especially rough, I feel like I’m in need of a little extra joy!