In my family, reading has always been considered as a valuable activity that is both enjoyable and essential to the growth of the mind.
In my younger years, I was an avid reader. I remember finishing my first chapter book and, not long afterwards, finishing several of them in a week. My favorite type of books were fiction, as I loved action adventure novels and other entertaining stories. When reading these books, I was able to let my imagination take hold and get my mind completely engulfed in whatever I was reading. In this way, I was able to enjoy books as well as I enjoyed any other activities, such as watching television or playing my Gameboy.
As I grew older, I began reading more sophisticated fiction, like science and historical fiction, and even dipped into the nonfiction range once in a while. I continued to enjoy reading with the same sort of satisfaction, but I began to read less frequently as my school workload increased, the sports that I played began to take up more time, and my social life grew more diverse.
In my high school years, leading up until now, I have found that my time spent reading has been diminished. This is most likely because of the reasons listed above, but I also presume that it is due to the change in my reading style and the way that I perceive books and reading in general.
As I matured mentally and continue to mature, I have found that I have a stronger tendency to analyze the book to find deeper meanings and understand the story more. Instead of just speeding through books just for the story, I now try to analyze the story for anything extraordinary. So, as a result of spending more time on individual books, I have spent less time reading other books.
In the past couple of years, I have been around many intelligent people. As I go through high school with them, I am realizing a difference between the few that read a lot and those who do not. These people's vocabulary and linguistic skills have grown significantly. These changes are clear when having discussions with them. I have since realized that reading, in general, makes people smarter. Not only does vocabulary increase and writing become more sophisticated, reading allows people's capacity for knowledge to develop.
What does it mean to be a reader, then? Readers are people who want to extend their range of knowledge and improve their intelligence. Readers are people devoted to getting smarter. (That is, if the right material is being read.)
I feel that to become a better reader and thus a more intelligent person, I simply have to read more. I must concede that the books that I read currently are mostly works of fiction with some nonfiction peppered in. In order to become a better analyzer and a more diverse reader, I should read more nonfiction. While fictional books are most certainly entertaining and provide a good deal of analytical material, nonfiction usually relate to life more directly and can be applied to life easier.
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