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Reading
has always been a big part of my life. Ever since I was a little
girl, or at least for as long as I can remember, I have been reading.
Whether it was a book, a magazine, or a newspaper, you could always
find me with something to read in my hands. I think I started reading
when I was about three or four years old. At first, it was only
children’s books, with just a few words per page, but the
older I got, the longer and more difficult the books got. As soon
as I finished reading one book, my father gave me a new book that
was a little bit more difficult. My father has always had a big
collection of books. Sitting in our living room was always like
sitting in a big jungle of books. Although I learned to write at
the age of three, I was never very fond of writing until I started
high school. I think that there are two main reasons as to why I
like to read and two reasons as to why I like to write.
The first and
main reason as to why I like reading as much as I do is my father.
Ever since I was a little girl, he has encouraged me to read as
much as I possible can. Almost every day he gave me one or two articles
that he had cut out from the newspaper and that he wanted me to
read. When I was bored and told him that I didn’t have anything
to do, he always said to me, “How can you have nothing to
do when we have so many books that you can read.” and then
he went with me to our living room and gave me a book that he thought
I would like. At that time, I just though that he was trying to
get me to do what he wanted me to, which was reading books instead
of watching TV. Now I know that he did it because he wanted what
was, and still is, best for me. He wanted me to learn and experience
as much as possible while I still had the time. The older you get
the less time you have to read books, other than university literature.
Now that I have realized that he was right, I try to read as much
as I have time to.
The second reason
as to why I like to read is that Sweden is a country in which reading
is more popular than writing. When you take the bus, the train,
or the subway, you can always see a lot of people reading something:
a book, a newspaper, or a magazine. In Sweden, we have many newspapers
and huge libraries. Wherever you go, the doctor, the dentist, the
hairdresser, or your local pizza place, there’s always something
to read while you wait for your service. It’s a fact that
we Swedes love to read. I think that a good reader is also often
a good writer, which we Swedes are proof of. We have many worldwide
famous writers, such as Astrid Lindgren, Selma Lagerlof, and Harry
Martinsson. If that comes from us being good readers, I can not
tell you without have the facts to prove it, but I think that a
good writer has most likely started as a good reader. When you read
a lot of books, whether they are fiction or non-fiction, you get
a nice grip of how interesting and attention grabbing writers write,
the language they use, and the style of different books. If you
read a lot, you get a lot of new ideas to write a book of your own.
The main reason
as to why I like to write is poems. For some reason, when I started
high school, I also started to write poems. I didn’t write
long and compl9icated poems, just short and simple ones. At that
age, most of the poems were about love. I still write poems from
time to time, but not as often as I used to. I have never liked
writing long texts, but I do enjoy writing shorter pieces like poems.
When I write poems, I mostly write them in English. I somehow find
it easier to express myself when I write in English. I really don’t
know why, but when I started writing poems, I automatically started
writing in English. For me, English has never been a problem to
understand or to write. In addition to poetry, I also like to write
in my diary once in a while.
Another reason
as to why I like writing is my diary. When I write in my diary,
there is no on correcting me and no one telling me what I can or
cannot write. I’m free to write whatever I want, how I want.
I usually write about my experiences from the day, what I feel and
have felt about the things that have happened. Sometimes, for examples
now when I’m here in the U.S., I write about how much I miss
my family, my boyfriend, and also about all the new things that
I do here. When I write in my diary, I write in Swedish. I think
that’s because I just write the first thing that comes to
my mind, which is usually in Swedish. Since I don’t have a
problem with the English language, I think that writing in English
and Swedish is very similar. I don’t really think about the
fact that I’m writing in English because when I do, it just
comes very naturally. One example in now when I’m in the U.S.,
I write my diary in English because that is what feels more natural
to me. That doesn’t feel hard or weird to me because I use
English all the time here.
As you can read
from my paper, there are a lot of reasons as to why I like to read
and write. The culture in Sweden has affected the way I think of
reading. My father helped me to get interested in reading although
I didn’t always appreciate him doing so at the time. The older
you get, the more feelings, thoughts, and ideas you have. You can’t
express all of the verbally when you talk to your friends, which
is the reason why I started to write a diary, and that is probably
also the reason why I started to write poems. I think that all of
us like to either read or write in one way or another. Some read
books looking for answers and some just read to relax. Some people
write when they are sad and some write when they are happy. The
most important thing to remember is that we are all different and
that we all like to do things differently.
- Anna-Lotta
Stensson, Sweden, Level 5 (Spring 2007)
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