Friday, March 21, 2014

Feature and Follow Friday: Reading Habits




This week's question: How have your reading habits changed in the past few years? Did you get interested in a new genre? Do you read more? Less? Why do you think your habits changed, if they did.

My Response

I think now I'm actually reading less than I used to. I'm also now more into science fiction and dystopia than I was a few years ago. When I was younger, all I would read was contemporary YA.

In high school, I basically lived in the library. We had a weird high school setting where they gave us freedom to do our work or to procrastinate because the school was designed to help us prepare for college. I took advantage of this and saw to it that I read every interesting book I saw. 
I remember in middle school things were all weird because you had to have a teacher's permission to enter the library. What?? I had just moved to America and I was trying to go check out a book during lunch time at my middle school and the librarian told me I needed a teacher's permission. Is this a regular thing? Why would they do that?
 In Jamaica, I usually just went to library during lunch and it wasn't a problem with my teachers. 

Freedom to explore the library was one of the reasons I loved my high school. It was pretty cool. All you had to do was sign out of class and write down where you were going and you could spend the whole day at the library. I became friends with the librarian and joined my school's book club. It was bliss!!! 

I still spend a lot of time in the library at college, but...college libraries are slightly different than high school libraries. My high school library was filled with novels about adventure, romance, and fun. Then you get to college and the library is filled with all these boring textbooks. In fact, there is one shelf, I kid you not, ONLY one shelf designated for "leisure reading." 


Funny story! My friend and I were ecstatic on the first day of school when we saw our gigantic library. We were prepared to start reading books immediately. Then, we started browsing around and looking in the library's database for new books to read. We were shocked that there were no books to read just for fun. That's when we finally found that one shelf entitled "leisure reading." I think I should've known that it wouldn't be just like high school, but I don't know, I was just expecting something different. *sigh* I still read a lot, but not half as much as I used to. I'm making an effort to change this year. 


What about you guys? Do you read more than you used to or less? Plus, just out of curiousity, did you need a teacher's permission to use the library when you were in middle school? Is that a normal thing?

16 comments:

  1. Throughout elementary and middle school, my teachers would happily let me go to the library if I had finished all of the class work and homework early (which I normally did!) In middle school, I read BEAUTY by Robin McKinley. It was my first fairy tale retelling. I loved it. I made my mom take me to six or seven bookstores (and we lived in the sticks, so we had to drive an HOUR to the mall, an hour to the grocery store, etc.) to try and find a copy for myself. It was out of print at the time. So I kept the library book and paid double the fine to the library with an apology to my librarian for "losing" it. eeps.

    Tiffany @ A_TiffyFit's Reading Corner

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    1. Ahhhh! I knew my middle school was weird! lol! "Losing" that book was a great plan.

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  2. I love the GIFs in your post. Totally appropriate. :) I've seen Matilda more times than I can count. New follower.

    Jessica @ Tales Between the Pages

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    1. *high fives* Matilda was awesome!
      Followed back! :)

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  3. Hi there! New BL follower. My best friend growing up was Jamacian. Man I miss his mommas cooking!! Your highschool sounded amazing. I feel like I went to military school!
    <3
    Brittany @ Please Feed The Bookworm
    Follow Me Here

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    Replies
    1. There is no cooking like a Jamaican woman's cooking (except mine, don't eat anything I give you). Yes, my high school was awesome! Though I must admit the work was pretty overwhelming....maybe cause I was reading when I should've been studying! :)

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  4. The gifs are great! I was always in the library when I was in high school (and college/grad school but then it wasn't for pleasure) New follower

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    1. College sucks the life out of me. I'm glad you made it through the pain! <3

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  5. Hopping through. I liked going to the library during lunch when I was in high school. Partly for the books but partly because that was the only place you could play on the internet in the late 90s.
    My FF

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    1. Hahaha! It was mostly books for me, but I'm sure I used the internet a bunch of times....mostly to look up new books! :)

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  6. We actually had excellent selections in everyone of the schools I went to, which was 3. I didn't realize how lucky I was. Thanks for dropping by my blog =)

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    1. Yes, extremely lucky! I repeat, ONE leisure reading shelf. ONE. Smh. PS. I've said this many times, but I love your name! :)

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  7. Your high school sounds amazing. I wish I could have went there. Our high school banned Harry Potter. It was 75% non-fiction. Any fiction were the weird '50s style Western romances. Harry Potter is bad, but half naked women and men on romance covers were okay. Yep. That sums up high school for me.

    New BlogLovin' follower! My FF!

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  8. I'm not sure if I read more or less, but I think I've become more open to other genres since blogging. I never really went to the library in school (not many students did, actually) but I always tried to find time to read at home. Have a great weekend! :)

    New follower via GFC
    My FF

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    1. Being open to new genres is a good trait. Reading at home was always so stressful with all the noises and the constant interruptions. It drove me crazy! haha! Thanks for commenting <3

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I love receiving your comments! I will always read them, promise! :D I want to hear what you think.

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