Reading was not something that came naturally to me as a child, although I came from a family of avid readers. At an early age, I had problems pronouncing and spelling words, and these problems held me back from reading. Around the fourth or fifth grade, I stated reading mystery books and some fantasy, and by the eighth grade, I had progressed to horror and science fiction. Even though my academic problems had not improved, I had learned to work around them and enjoy reading. Reading has given me so much enjoyment and satisfaction in life. Reading carries me into fantastic worlds of imagination, transports me through life, yet, lets escape reality from time to time.
After many years of reading, I have found that my favorite kinds of books are fantasy and science fiction. They seem to draw me into fantastic worlds of strange, new beings from your imagination. These types of books excite my mind. One of the first fantasy series that I remember reading was by J. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit and The Fellowship of The Rings. I was hooked with the first book and have been ever since. I imagined being apart of these books, or I just got so absorbed in reading that I lost track of time. My days and nights would get mixed up, and I would spend days reading. Unfortunately, in the past few years, time has not been on my side, and I have not been able to spend as much time reading as I would like.
I have also been known to read other kinds of books like historical fiction, romance, fictional, and horror. I find pleasure in these because these kinds of books bound me closer to reality. One book in particular by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander, was a historical fiction with a hint of romance. I had never read anything like it before, and it was great. Outlander gave the reader vivid detail about Scotland in the 1600's, life in Scotland during that time, and a gruesome account of a traitor's execution down to the gutting.
