Teen Reading Memoir

(Baker 2020)

From when I was much younger, I always enjoyed reading and pleasure reading was always strongly encouraged by my parents, specifically my mother. I remember that we had specific classics on hand to read that continue to be favorites to this day, including Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola and Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. While my mother definitely picked out most of the books and genres when I was young, she encouraged my interests as I grew. My preferred genres from childhood, though not necessarily my earliest years, remain to this day.

When I was a teen, I was a very particular reader – I enjoyed my favorite genres and authors and generally didn’t willingly choose to read books for pleasure outside of horror, fantasy, mystery, and

suspense. I had enjoyed horror novels since I was younger, having gotten hooked on R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps series very quickly, as well as his other work such as Fear Street, and then moving on to many different novels written by Stephen King in high school. During my tween and teen years is also when I began reading the Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling. This is actually a series and story I continue to love to this day and have actually since acquired the original Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as well.

While I would frequently see families visit our town’s public library on a weekly basis while I was working (though not so much now to COVID-19), when I was young my family visited the library only as needed. When or if my siblings and I needed to complete an assignment or for summer reading, my parents took us. Our pleasure reading was supplemented by books we borrowed and exchanged with friends, book fairs held in our school, and bookstores themselves. It was not until I was a tween at least that I started to visit the library more frequently with friends and began attending and exploring newly created programs and materials specifically created for that age group.

(An International Life n.d.)

Before the creation and development of specific teen materials and programs, I didn’t mind that my family and I visited so infrequently. Since I had the opportunity to access books for pleasure reading in other ways I unfortunately did not feel the draw to the library to seek out new material. However, once I realized that there was something new at the public library that had been specifically designed to interest patrons in my age group, I had a renewed interest in visiting more frequently and spending time there for more than just research for class assignments.

I personally never minded the idea of assigned reading. Since I was a very picky reader, assigned reading forced me to read a genre I ordinarily may not. I enjoyed some of the required reading (To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee for example), some I enjoyed despite my doubts (Shakespeare), and some I will certainly never pick up again (Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger). Ultimately, I did enjoy the concept of the assigned reading and some books that were required reads in high school continue to be some of my favorite books, such as The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

(An International Life n.d.)

An International Life. (n.d.). [meme of an Amazon company truck]. https://anintentionallife.me/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/my-book-order-came-in.png. 

An International Life. (n.d.). [meme of Belle from Beauty and the Beast]. https://anintentionallife.me/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/reading-meme.jpg.

Baker, K. (2020). Teen Reading [Image]. Connecticut.