What reading/writing means to me.

Reading, and writing. Both seem to go together, as one writes so that others may read, and for one to read others must write. It's like a circle. Sort of. Well, it can't be a triangle, since that has three sides, and it can't be a square, as squares have four. Pentagons are just ridiculous, and no one likes hexagons, so we'll stick with a circle for now. If you think I'm wrong-- though I don't know why or how you would, since it really was a silly argument to begin with-- then too bad.

It has been said that, "Books are gateways to new worlds" (Some Guy). But I disagree. I think books are gateways to new imaginations. Some would argue that those are the same thing, but no one cares about what they have to say. The reason I think this is because the imagination is apart of you, and all that occurs within books occurs within you. Your imagination creates the characters, setting, and plot within you. All the writer does is provide an outline, a skeleton. You fill in everything else with your mind. Have you gone to a movie remake of a book, and just been taken aback at how the director's vision of the story was so much different than yours? That is just one example of how the imagination can provide different interpretations of the same story.

When I was much younger, I marveled at how much my older sister read, and how well she did it. So, with my courage gathered and young mind focused, I sat down to pound my way through One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. When the dust had settled, the book was finished, and I, the victor, sat triumphantly on my bed, reveling in my victory. Then my puppy attacked me, and I couldn't just let him get away with that, but that's not the point. The point is, the first book I ever read on my own was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Don't look like that. It's not like I jumped right from Doctor Seuss to Hemingway, Chaucer and Milton. No, it was a much more gradual transition, moving on to The Billies Goat Gruff and other such tales.

Mr. Coon, my English teacher, mentioned that after the age of twelve, many people begin to read much less, and when asked some answered that they had read only one or no books in the past year. This, to me, is odd. See, I've read twenty-four books in the past three months, the longest of which was 1256 pages, and the shortest of which was 297. So the idea that anyone could go a year with reading only one book is foreign to me.

With regard to the types of books I enjoy, I can't really say. The genre isn't as important to me as the author, or style of writing. To me, the genre is just the generalization that the books I like are filed under. Generally, the types of books I read are under fiction, horror, fantasy, mystery, and science fiction. It's just coincidence that my favorite authors happen to write under these genres. Some of my favorite authors include Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchet, Robert Jordan, Tom Clancy, L.E. Modesitt jr., S.M. Stirling, Mike Shaara, Jeff Shaara, Thomas E. Sniegosky, Dan Abnett, D.J. Machale, Sergei Lukyanenko, E.E. Knight, Steven King, and Jim Butcher, just to name a few. I've never been a fan of biographies and such books, because there's no real room for imagination. It's all based on fact. Not much creativity there.

Since imagination appears to be a recurring theme so far, lets stick with it and apply it to writing. I have an active imagination. It's all over the place. Maybe that's why my creative writings have always been a step above my other writings, such as my essays and research papers. In my AP US History course, I was told to write a research paper about John Brown. BOR-ing. In my Writing Seminar course, I was told to write about any cultural phenomena the I wanted. I wrote about zombies. That's much more exciting.

As to my favorite writings, there are many. One that was particularly successful is in the hands of my sophomore English teacher, Dr. Carter. I think she still reads it to the class as an example. One of my other favorites would be my sixth grade creative writing assignment. Here's a summery: the cast of Lord of the Rings tries to open a pickle jar. I still go back occasionally and fix it up a bit and add to it.

Often, while lying on my bed, statistics book laying open, homework untouched, I'll be living some scene or imaginative situation in my head, and I'll come upon something that is just so profound that I have to write it down, so I can look at it later and feel proud of myself. I'll then run it through my head for days, weeks, months, even years, and if I find some aspect of it that can be improved, I improve it. This is the source of most of my writings, and the reason I haven't yet written a novel. Although several stories may include characters from previous works.

There's one more thing that should be noted in describing my reading and writing habits: my music. Reading and writing is always accompanied by music, varying depending upon the story or topic, or just how I feel at the time. Even as I write this blog, I'm rocking out to various artists and genres of music (genres do matter to me when it comes to music). I think I even wrote an essay about how music effects me in my Writing Seminar course. I'll have to see if I can find it...

Well, that's all for now (983)(Wow, I got a little carried away. Sorry!)(991).