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Hi everyone, my name is Shari-Jo Morgan, I grew up in Jamaica where my parish had (2) libraries. Technology was not accessible at that time, so we had to focus on the books from the library to complete our assignments. Our school didn't have Fary tail books, all books had information to help us with class content.

I used to love reading back then, now I read because I have to and I believe it's because of technology. Everything is easily accessible and the libraries doesn't matter anymore. I wish things were different.

Shari-Jo

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For a long time, I didn’t enjoy reading because I was a slow reader, and it often felt more frustrating than fun. Recently, though, I’ve fallen in love with books and discovered how meaningful reading can be for me. I’m especially drawn to spiritual and psychology based books, which help me better understand myself and the world around me. Reading has become less about speed and more about connection, reflection, and for benefiting my own personal growth.

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When I was younger I used to read stories with morals in school now I like to read more novels and short stories in Spanish. I started to read more often after I moved to the United States. I started reading aloud to improve my pronunciation in English. I also like to watch tv shows with subtitles because it helps me to understand the word and to see how it’s written.

Johanny

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Hi everyone, my name is Wenfeng Huang. As a reader, now I like to read comics and nonfiction books. I grew up in China, and when I was a kid, I only read Chinese pictures books and songs. I started reading English books when I came to the U.S. I don’t have a specific type of book that I am really interested in. It was hard for me to understand the meaning when I read English books because there were many words I didn’t understand. Usually, I read books that my teacher requires. I like to listen to audiobooks.

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My life as a reader is continuous. As a kid I read books and explore new words, and I enjoy reading certain genres of children books. As I got older, I found it harder for me to concentrate on the reading. Now I read a lot from online, either the social media, my friends text, and movie captions. I swing between English and Chinese and notice the difference between how they are.

Jason Lin

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When I was younger, I mostly read for school and immediately wrote summaries after. I didn’t like to read honestly until I found out what kind of books I like to read. I love self help books like “The Secret.” It introduced ideas like positive thinking and how powerful your thoughts really are. My reading history shows how I’ve grown from reading for assignments to reading with purpose and for myself.

-Iliana

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When i first time got here in the U.S. I can’t understand a word. But the teacher still gives me the same level book as the others. My mom send to a tutoring center, they help me to read the book, and explain the word that I doesn’t know, they explain to me in English, even though i ask him if he could tell the Chinese meaning of it, he refused to tell me. I can understand this English word more deeply. -Zizheng

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As reader I think that I have done much better I remember when I was younger hated to read because I struggled a lot with reading specially in English. English is not my first language so I hated reading informs of people. With time and effort I started to read more so I got better at it. I won’t say that I am big reader but the books I mostly used to read were National Geographic Books that talk about different animals species or geography books en general. Now I just read important news articles when I am interested. I mostly like to read when there is an image so I have better understanding of what I am reading.

Miguel Beltre

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When I was young, I didn’t really like reading books especially the readings I need to do for school. But I found myself interested in looking up at the signs when I was walking outside on the street.

Now I find myself attracted to reading books that I like. I think the reasons for that is because I am able to understand what the authors is trying to convey.

-Amie

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Maryam Elgamal

I likes to read crime stories that explore mystery, suspense, and the hidden motives behind every character. enjoys stories where the truth slowly unfolds and nothing is exactly as it seems.

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I like to read, especially on my commute to/from school or in between my classes. I feel like it’s a good way to destress while also entertaining myself. When I was younger I only liked to read on physical books, but now I prefer to read ebooks because it’s more convenient and less money. To avoid getting bored of reading I try to read a variety of genres. Right now I’m reading a murder mystery book.

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I am a very visual learner, so I like to read comic books or books that have very descriptive writing.

Journaling is also a recent hobby that I have developed. I feel that it is helping me develop my literacy through vocabulary words and sentence structure even today.

-Afifa

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To be honest, I'm not really someone who loves reading that much. I just read books assigned by teachers and what I’m interested in. Most of the books that I’m interested are fiction.

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I have always enjoyed reading, regardless of genre/ content, but recently it has become a bit harder to indulge in. I read more picture based texts now (comics) or shorter texts, and longer texts are still enjoyable but hard to get through without distractions.

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The way I read nowadays in comparison to when I was a child has changed drastically since I went from physical books to reading online on websites. I’ve also always loved reading comic books and or mangas , it developed from just reading picture books as a child to preferring images while I read. When I was in kindergarten I remember a hobby of mine that I found interesting was when I would take a dictionary from my aunts library and grab a piece of paper and copy down all the words in the book along with their definitions because I found it exciting to learn about different words and their meanings. I adored spelling as well and still do especially when I won my first spelling bee in the 7th grade , it’s an exciting literary topic that always make me engaged to participate in

Mellanie Benito

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I have always been a fan of reading. When I entered 3rd grade, I used to read a lot of Goosebump books. Those books are what got me into reading because we had to independently read during one of our periods. At first, I felt it wasn’t fun but eventually I ended up looking it. This has carried on into my life now and I still love reading. I have tried using audio books as well since my sister recommended it was easier to follow along. However, I found it more difficult to actually focus on what I was reading. I found the speed to be too slow or too fast and not at a pace that I normally read at.

Deisy Valles Ortega

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Growing up my mother read picture books to me and she would teach me to read and write. She would tell me stories based on the pictures on our bathroom walls about the ocean and the sea. She would create cd songs for me with my name in it to have me listen to.

As I got older, I would read fiction books from authors like Ransom Riggs and Rick Riordan. I would also read comic books online and write my own stories.

Nowadays, I do a lot of reading and writing in my free time as those are two of my favorite hobbies. I am currently in the process of writing a horror book based on a family who moves to a small town due to a job where weird things occur after the family moves houses.

Melanie Gajardo

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Growing up, my older brother loved reading and my household practically had/still has a library of books. Therefore I grew up really interested in books, and invested in wanting to read as many as possible. Now, I don’t read full books as often, but I try to find the time because I do find it enjoyable. My favorite series is the Hunger Games and has been since I read it.

Also, I have always had an interest in creating stories, which was also influenced by my older brother, who would play pretend with our toys a lot. This caused me to still enjoy writing and creating stories to this day.

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As a child I basically memorized the stuff in English of whatever things I learned in my languages . But once I moved in USA I started to read from subtitles and by watching videos of what’s going on.

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When I was younger I used to love to read Dork Diaries, I would hide the book under my pillow so that at bed time I could still continue reading it. As I grew older, I felt like reading became more of like a responsibility rather than a hobby. I began reading history books for school, letters, articles, grocery store labels, which made reading a little less interesting.

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I was a big reader at a young age. My dad and I would go on long car trips and I would read books in the backseat, luckily without getting carsick. I have a fond memory of stopping at a used bookstore on the way to Maine and picking out a new series that is still one of my favorites today. Then and now my favorite genre is fantasy.

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As a child, I loved reading and teaching my younger brothers to read. I was always making my parents buy me workbooks and flashcards, either for myself or to encourage my brothers to complete. When I got in trouble at home, my parents would “ground” me from books. This all changed around middle school, with the introduction and popularization of Instagram. I no longer engage in much reading outside of school, unfortunately.

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As a student, I’m constantly reading emails, reading certain texts such as poetry or short stories, and tasks that I need to do.

Outside of school, I’m always reading text messages that my friends send me or scrolling through social media. I find myself reading post and captions on Instagram.