Reading Survey

I like reading since I was a little kid, but my love for literature was built with my reading experiences in middle school. I’m not from Canada, I’m from Brazil and there we can’t choose our classes. So, in Grade 8, I had a Portuguese teacher (the same as an English teacher) that make us read 3 books per month. We had 10 days to read the book that she chose for us and then we had an oral test about it where all the students made questions for each other. This teacher was who showed me the most important books and authors that I’ve ever read and known. She taught me how to choose books not only because of the cover, but also because of author, the “era” that was wrote, the language, etc. These experiences built inside of me a big desire for learning  more about literature, reading more and, consequently, one of the things that I like most, writing.

Besides books, I also like reading magazines, because I like how they are organized and how they can make a boring topic turn into a funny one with the pictures and the way that journalists write. Another thing that I like reading are some stories in internet that are called “fanfics”, written by people (generally girls) that like an specific actor or singer and posted in sites propers for this kind of stories. I don’t like to read and associate the story with me and the famous guy that the author associated her story, like the readers of fanfics are suppose todo, so I always give other names to the characters, what is funnier for me because I can put my own characters in someone’s story.

For me is hard to pick a favourite book, but one of myfavourites is The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger, because the main character is very sincere with his own feelings and with everything that he says, he describes the world exactly the way he sees it and this is one thing that I like in books, when the main character are very descriptive and do it in his/her own way. In terms of authors, is also hard to pick afavourite, but two of the ones that I like most are CharlesBukowski and Mario Quintana (brazilian).

When I read, all that I can think is what I would do if I was the characters or what the author was feeling when he wrote that. I really get into the plot of the book when I’m reading, for me this is the best way to enjoy a book. Sometimes, I even think about how bad I wish I had written that, because some authors are geniuses and I want to be like them.

This semester, I want to meet other kinds of literature and explore the types that I don’t like much. I want to know some opinions of people that like the kinds of books that I don’t, like the vampire and monsters ones, because I think the best way to start reading a book that you never would choose in the shelf is with someone’s indication. I also want that my reading this semester helps to improve my writing, one of the reasons why I want to meet other types of literature is to improve my creative ability, so I will have more things to write about and I’ll improve my writing.