My love of reading started when I was just a child. My tendency to be glued to the television screen led me to being banned from watching it ever again. Without any source of entertainment, I soon grew bored with my surroundings. One day however, my mother took me to the local library to check out some books. She left me to my own devices for a while, so I wandered around the library looking around at the various books it had to offer. Before I knew it, I had picked up a book and started reading. Since then, I had continued to read even more and books, and soon, reading became my favorite hobby. In my mind, reading and books had completely replaced television. From Harry Potter to Percy Jackson, the books I have read have been just as entertaining as the television shows I used to love so much, sometimes even more so, which is one of the reasons why I love reading so much. Reading is entertaining, more so than television. In addition, it is far more useful than television, both in my daily life, and to my academic achievement, as well as being a means of escape from my otherwise boring life.

　　One of the greatest reasons why I have loved reading so much is because I enjoy reading. It is, by far, the most entertaining activity I have ever done. With it broad selection of genres, the books I read have never failed to fascinate me. I enjoyed all types of book genres, such as humor, action, adventure, and fantasy. Book genres such as humor have given me laughter I had never experienced before, leaving my sides aching long after I had finish reading the book. Books with action and adventure have me eagerly flipping the pages to find out how the battle between the hero and the evil villain would turn out. Books with suspense had me glued to my seat, leaving me at cliffhangers and forcing me to wonder about what exactly would befall the protagonist of the story. The mystery genre was especially fascinating, with its shadowy detectives and mass murdering scientists. The fantasy genre, with its wizards, witches, and dragons sparked my imagination, and after finishing, I would sometimes stare at the ceiling envisioning great magical battles between the forces of good and evil. Fiction books were not the only enjoyable reading material however. I had once been doubtful of nonfiction’s capacity to thrill and excite, but even dull, boring, nonfiction proved to be fascinating. Stories of people like the missing pilot Amelia Earhart and Russian mystic Giorgio Rasputin who survived even after being poisoned, shot three times, and clubbed, only to die of drowning after being tied and dumped into an icy river, continue to captivate my interest.

　　Another reason why I love reading so much is because of how useful it has been to me in my life. Reading proved to be a great help in all areas of my life. As a child, my grasp of English began to improve rapidly ever since I had picked up my first book. I found out, later, that reading had been a great help in my writing and communication skills as well. My love of reading also helped me in my endeavors at school. As direct result of my reading, my grades, especially those in English, improved dramatically. The quality of my writing and reading comprehension skills increased as well. Standardized tests in English suddenly became incredibly easy. By reading, I was able to increase my vocabulary knowledge and increase my knowledge in other areas such as grammar. Tasks such as deciphering a words meaning through its context became easier, as I had much practice through reading. My love of reading has also enabled me to better my grades in other areas as well. Subjects like History had always been a burden to me, as the text had always been dense, and the vocabulary advanced in the textbooks. My ability to understand what I was learning in the textbooks was greatly increased, as was my ability to focus on the most important aspects of the reading, such as the main idea of the text. Even my performance in math and science was also affected by my love of reading. Word problems are a prime example of language in use in mathematics. As one goes up the education latter, the terminology in the word problems of mathematics becomes more advanced. The same is true in science. As I had learned many new words from reading books, learning new vocabulary and remembering them was not much of a problem to me.

　　A major reason why I love and enjoy reading is because it provides a method of escape from my life. Ordinary life, as I had found out when I was a child, is extremely boring and dull. Consequently, I turned to television as a source of entertainment. That soon failed me as I was banned from watching it ever again. When I picked up my first book, I had tread with caution, for reading was something I had never attempted to delve in too deep. I had feared that reading would be awfully boring, just as I had felt life to be incredibly boring. However, I was soon absorbed by the books I had begun to read. My hobby of reading became the thing that gave a desperately needed variety in my monotonous life. Especially in the beginning, I had turned to reading as an escape from my seemingly boring and dull life. As I grew older though, life became more and more hectic. Attending middle school made me busier than ever before. Coupled with the fact that my four year old brother had recently started to make a lot more noise around the house, my life was, in my eyes, miserable. Reading ended up saving me from being crushed by the increasing pressure in life. It was the perfect method of escape for me. I found that I could tune out much of the outside world by engrossing myself in a book. Even the loudest noises made by brother would be drowned out as I read my favorite stories. When I read my books, I felt the burden bestowed upon me by my constant work had been lifted. I felt a lot more light hearted, and, after finishing a book, I would be happier about my life than I was when I started.

　　As a child, I viewed the separation of me and my beloved television to be the worst thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life. As I look back and reflect on how different my life was afterwards, I feel that the separation may have been the best thing that has happened to me so far. If I had not been separated from the television, it would be very likely that I would never view reading as something very enjoyable or exciting. I even might have ended up hating reading and all that it stood for. Because of the separation though, I was introduced to the wonderful world of reading, where I grew to love reading. Reading has always been entertaining and fun, with books of all genres being fascinating in their own right. Time and time again, it has proven its worth to me in my daily life and communication skills, as well as being pivotal in my progress at school. Reading has also relieved me of my apparently giant burden of work and hardship, providing me a path of escape from the real world.