Edgerton 1

Nicholas Edgerton
Ms. Knudson
UWRT 1103-015
September 10, 2014
Literacy Memoir
I have never been a person that reads for hobby or entertainment. Reading has
just never really appealed to me. Ive always felt like Ive been forced to read, and Ive
never really been rewarded for it. Middle and high school has made me dread reading.
Public middle and high school curriculum and teachers have forced students to
overanalyze readings, and look for the deepest core elements that are non-existent.
Honestly, I dont even think that authors mean to put some of these elements in their
books. Over-analyzing books has taken the joy out of reading for me. Most reading for
me is just a dreadful task that I have to do just to get it over with. The only reading that I
enjoy is reading that appeals to my hobbies and interests. I will analyze readings if they
interest me, but being forced to overanalyze every uninteresting book in high school has
completely changed the way I look at books. I havent always felt this strong dislike
towards reading, but my opinions have yet to change throughout my educational career.
When I was little, my parents used to read to me. When I would go to bed, they
would read bed time stories and other books to me. I guess I would consider this the
first time I started to understand words. They would read the same books to me over
and over again on different nights. I preferred some books more than others. I would

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start to memorize what the books said, and I would start to understand what they
meant. When my parents felt that it was time for me to start to learn to read, they started
having me read the same books they read to me. I already knew what the books were
supposed to say, and what the pictures in the books meant, so I started matching up
page numbers with what I knew the stories were supposed to say. After practicing with
the pictures and stories, I started reading the words along with what I knew the story
was saying. I broke down the big picture of the story into pages, and then broke it down
into individual words. Before I knew it, I was reading lots of stories like this. Around
preschool, I started really understanding what words on paper meant. I could apply
them to more than one book. I could read.
After I started to understand words, my parents invested in a LeapFrog.
LeapFrog offered a large variety of games to help increase reading, writing, and
interpretive skills. The LeapFrog also successfully attempted to make a personal
connection with the child by including many games based off of popular kids television
shows. Some of the shows that the games are based off of include SpongeBob, Blues
Clues, and Dora the Explorer. There were spelling games, critical thinking games,
games to increase your hand-eye coordination, and many more. The LeapFrog really
appealed to me and my learning style. It also helped me to start applying words to
different situations. I started to love video games already with all the new technology
coming out. I loved playing Pac-Man on my GameBoy, and the LeapFrog was like
another game system. The LeapFrog was so revolutionary to me because I could learn
while playing video games. My parents had to literally pull me away from my LeapFrog
as a kid because I loved it so much. I have the LeapFrog to thank for my early

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advancement in literary skills. By the time I entered kindergarten, I was a grade ahead
in my reading and literacy skills.
Entering elementary school, I was a pretty big fan of reading short, visually
appealing stories. However, while advancing through grade school, I started to dislike
reading. The books started getting less visually appealing and harder to understand. I
liked books that I could easily understand and enjoy. Another part of elementary school
that affected how my opinion of reading was the introduction of reading logs. Reading
logs were a sheet a paper that a teacher assigned to their students that made the
students read 30 minutes every night. In elementary school, I would have much rather
been playing outside with my friends or playing video games than reading stories that
didnt appeal to me. The reading log was shown as a grid with three columns. In the first
column, the student wrote in what book/magazine they read. The second column
included the amount of time the student actually read. In the third column, the students
parent had to sign to confirm that the student had actually read the stated book for the
recorded amount of time. This really changed my opinion of books. I liked to
occasionally read books about cars or music in my free time, but I didnt like the idea of
reading as homework. I felt like I was forced to read.
In middle school, I started reading music. I started playing piano and drums.
Reading music is completely different than reading a book, but I believe that it actually
helped advance my literary skills. Understanding music was kind of like understanding a
new language. It opened up another door in my life. For some people, reading is their
escape from the world. For me, it was music. I could go play drums or piano, and go
off into another world. Reading music and being able to apply it to an instrument really

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appealed to me, and it has helped me cope with many things in my life. I still play drums
today, and it still acts as an escape from the world in my life.
Later in middle school, I started to get involved with cars. I loved to learn more
about them and how they worked, and this included reading about them. I have a lot of
car books and magazines at home. I also own a lot of NASCAR books, which is the
main sport I grew up watching. The books that I own arent short books, either. It took
me a while to read the books, but I actually enjoyed them. They educated me about how
cars and supercars worked. These books are a big reason why I am studying
Mechanical Engineering at UNC Charlotte, and concentrate in Motorsports.
What I consider the most important, life-changing decision of my life happened in
the summer before my 8th grade year. It has also changed how I feel about reading and
books. I attended a church camp with my youth group, and gave my life to Christ. This
is obviously a huge moment in my life, but it was a huge literary moment of my life as
well. Since eighth grade, I have been reading different passages and stories from the
Bible to further improve my relationship with God. I also go to church and bible studies
that dissect verses and stories to attempt to understand the real message behind them.
I do not like dissecting books and finding the hidden meanings in them like schools
force their kids to do. The big difference in dissecting the Bible against dissecting other
literary texts is how much I want to learn about the Bible. I am actively trying to learn
more and more about the Bible. I have a desire to learn more about Jesus. Pertaining to
the dissecting of other books, I have no desire to learn more about their hidden
meanings and core values because of my past and future experiences in my
educational career. I believe that these literary skills are important to have, and could

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even help me to further understand the Bible and how to apply the Word to my life, but
the passion is not there for school readings. I have a passion for Christ and I strive to
learn more about Christianity every day.
Another way to think about Christianity is that Im putting my trust into a book.
This is very true, because I have faith in the Lord that the book is accurate, and the
accounts are true. Another way the Bible increases my literacy skills is by me trying to
share it with others. As a Christian, I am called to share the Gospel with others. To do
so, I have to fully understand what God is trying to convey in his messages. I have to be
able to answer any questions that would be thrown my way, and I have to be able to
provide answers to any religious arguments. I have to dig deeper into the readings of
the Bible to be able to answer any questions that may occur. The change to Christianity
has really affected the way I see reading. Before, I thought that reading wasnt really
able to change anybodys life or actually benefit anyone. I thought the only purpose of
readings and books was for entertainment and to increase your reading speed. After
experiencing how life-changing the introduction of the Bible in my life was, however, I
have learned that reading really can change an individuals life.
Right after the summer that I gave my life to Christ, I entered high school.
Entering high school, I was indifferent about reading. I didnt really know what to expect
from high school, other than a lot of work, and a little more freedom. I entered my
freshman English class without knowing what to expect. One of the first assignments
was a book report. Immediately, I started to worry about my literary future. One thing
that I strongly dislike is analyzing a book and showing the underlying values that may or
may not even exist. Unfortunately, that is exactly what most of high school was for me. I

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had to analyze books for every English class. Usually, I would look up the SparkNotes
for the book and be done with it. Then I would ask other people that had actually read
the book what was different from the book and the SparkNotes, and they would try to
explain it to me. I did this a lot in high school, just because I hated analyzing such an
uninteresting book so much. I couldnt stand trying to find all the symbolism, underlying
themes and tones, and historical references in a book. Especially books that we are
required to read in high school that are not relatable; almost unreadable. I enjoy books
that I can apply to my life and learn from, not boring books about historical events.
My strong dislike for high school reading got to a critical breaking point in 11th
grade. In my junior year, The Great Gatsby was a book that was on the required
reading list. I had heard that it was actually not a bad book. People that had read it
before seemed to slightly enjoy it. But, during that year, the Great Gatsby movie came
out. People that had read the book and then seen the movie said that it was very
accurate to the novel. A group of my friends were going to go see the movie anyway, so
I just joined them. It turned out that it was very accurate to the book, and I scored an 80
on the test without even opening the book. The point is, I got so tired of reading school
books and novels that I actually went and saw the movie for The Great Gatsby. School
had ruined me so much that I didnt even open the book. I took the easy way out and
got lucky that the movie was so accurate. That was probably the lowest literary point of
my life.
Now that Im in college, I still dislike reading. The only reading that I do in
my free time is car magazines and the Bible. I dont like reading books or stories for
college classes because I dont really relate to them or connect to them. I cant apply

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what some of the stories are saying to my life. However, since middle and high school
readings, I have matured quite a bit. I used to not even respect reading. I just saw it as
a thing people did to entertain themselves. I personally know now that reading can be
life-changing. It can open up doors in an individuals life that they didnt even know
existed. Reading can help people cope with problems, or even solve problems. Even
though it is not my favorite thing to do by any means, I respect reading and writing. My
college career is very young, and my opinions about reading can easily change. With
less structure, evaluation, and analytical readings, I might can even sit down and enjoy
reading a novel before college is over.