By Betsy Dionne

Oak Hill High School

I did not always love to read. Up to the third grade I hardly picked up a book; my years before were spent looking at the pictures in wonder as my classmates started to read picture books and even short stories. The reason I never read was because I never understood. In the third grade my teacher noticed this, and I was diagnosed with dyslexia. Since then I have gotten help with reading, and today I probably read more then most people I know. Reading to me opens a new dimension to our perceptions. We see the words but images and pictures are translated to our brains. There is no better form of entertainment then to read a good book-they enlighten, educate, and enchant us. Reading books opens our minds to new possibilities.

A good novel can give you much more than a movie or television show. Whereas you watch a movie which supplies you with images of the characters, settings, and background, a book only gives you words. Words which tell you how the grain sways in the fields and how the dust covers the road swallowing the feet which walk upon it, or the gait of a man walking towards his home. With these words you construct your our characters and settings, you decide what they look like and how their environment surrounds them. Such is true in “The Grapes of Wrath,” one of my favorite novels. Steinbeck is, to me, one of the best writers because he gives you these images of characters, not so much by actually describing them but by how they interact with what is going on around them. You can create how you want them to look while the personality Steinbeck created shines through. This is one reason I love books so much; no one is there telling you how you should see something or how you should interpret the words you are reading. You create the reality of the novel.

I have read many books throughout my lifetime, (more then I can list), and I plan to read many more. Even have a pile of “to read” books by my bed. I always have a novel I’m reading out of school. It’s like a security blanket for me. When I don’t have a book to read I feel like there is something missing in my daily life. Right now for I am reading “The Count of Monte Cristo.” The novel is exciting and interesting, especially how the characters have all these complex relationships with one another. The imagery itself of Parisian streets and French country side is enough to keep me reading. As far as “the Great novels” go, I can’t say if I have read more than a handful of them. I read for the enjoyment of reading, and I love books that leave me sitting for hours lost in fantasy worlds or sword fights or mysterious men in black. Novels give us the opportunity to use our minds, not just to read but to allow what we are reading to take over our imagination.

Most of the best books I have read were not school assigned; this is not to say the reading curriculum at school is not interesting. I believe my indifference to novels assigned in class stems from the fact that I read for fun, and at some times it can seem like work at school. It could also be due to my taste in novels. I like controversial novels, ones which are strange and unpredictable, novels that would be never allowed in any English class. This is not because I enjoy the shock value; it is more because I like what the authors do. They take the same media as hundreds before them but create something totally different and unorthodox, just as art can be shocking and “obscene” so can literature. This fact is very evident in “Naked Lunch” reading it you can not help but think, what was Burroughs on while writing this, at the same time though I was amazed by the structure or seemingly lack thereof. The novel hops around starting with point A but leading to some letter not even associated with the alphabet. Other controversial novels have far more structure to them, such as “Clockwork Orange,” one of my favorite novels. Burgess created a coming of age story distorted into something terribly wrong. Although I enjoy the novels that are given in school I sometimes like to read novel which go against the grain in today’s society.

I never limit myself to one type of book. I read fantasy, adventure, horror, mystery, love, and many others. Recently though I have become interested in novels based on historical events. I always loved history but last year we were assigned reading in US history, we read about the revolutionary war in a book called “Patriots.” We also read a novel called “Killer Angels” about the Civil War, (I highly recommend it). Since that class I have become far more interested in novels about history and events which happened long ago. While others may just find them to be “fact” books I love to read about what kind of flag Black Beard flew, or how Captain Morgan sacked Panama. What makes these books so interesting and exciting is that the event which take place in them really happened. Once again the words allow me to paint my own picture of these historical figures and their world at the time.

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. It opens me to new ideas and knowledge. I have no doubt that people who read will enjoy it if they can just use their minds to paint a picture of the words they read. The ink on a page of a book is so much more than that.

Reading is an outlet for imagination and intelligence; it is the media to create images and characters, to travel to far lands and tropical paradises, and they all exist in your mind.

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