children's literature autobiography

I don't really remember much about reading as a child. In fact I don't remember much of anything about my early childhood. I only have a few bits and pieces that come to mind. My mom told me that my brother an I read all the time, and that she read to us. I do remember my favorite book was Harry and the Terrible Whatsit. The book was about a kid, and a monster who terrorized him. The monster got bigger with the child's fear. Once the child decided he wasn't going to be afraid of the monster, the monster started shrinking. The kid was hitting the monster with a broom and it kept shrinking. Eventually the tiny monster ended up crying on the washing machine. At least that is how I think the story went. I also remember my mom taking us to the city library. I think we had a chart with however many books we read indicated on it. Of all the title on my chart, I really liked this book of scary ghost stories best. The pictures in the book were all black and white. I liked to read, but I liked the duck pond at the library better.When I was in the third grade my parents had me tested for learning disabilities. At the time I didn't realize that I was being tested. I went to some strange office building where I had a piece of candy, got a drink from the water fountain, and did some puzzles. That is all I remember of that experience. Later when I was eighteen years old I overheard my mom tell someone that they had had me tested and that I was mildly dyslexic. Only then did I realize what that strange day had been all about. I asked my mom about it later and she told me that I was in fact dyslexic. They never told me about it before because it was not serious and they did not want me to make excuses for not performing properly in school. I have heard that people with dyslexia have a hard time reading, but I never noticed it when I was reading to myself. However, I hated to read aloud in class. I was a slow reader and occasionally stumbled over the words. Sometimes I read aloud a word that looked similar to the word I was reading, but meant something totally different. It was quite embarrassing. I had no comprehension when I read aloud because I was to busy concentrating on reading the individual words as fast as I possibly could. It all seemed fairly normal to me. Sometimes I think I should have myself tested again. Just so I know. If anything, I think I might have ADD. I can read a whole page sometimes and not know anything about what I just read.In my later elementary and early junior high years I read some of the series books. I remember reading Sweet Valley High and Baby Sitters Club, or something like that. I do not remember being excited about new books. I liked the book Bunicula. It was about a vampire rabbit that sucked vegetables dry untill they were white. The dog was the narrator of the story, and the cat was very suspicious of the rabbit. It was a mystery. The only book I remember reading for school was Where the Red Fern Grows. It made me cry, and I hated the book. I used to go to my mom's first grade classroom when school was out. I would pass the time by lying on the floor and reading all her classroom books. I read Bearenstine Bears and other books like that. I did not necessarily enjoy it. It was just something to do.When I got into high school we started reading more in my English and literature classes. I never read outside of school required reading. I hated Shakespeare. I never understood the imagery or hidden meanings of the books we read. What the book said and what it meant were two different things. It deeply frustrated me. I never liked Dickens or Hemingway either. The language sometimes made these books difficult to read. People today do not talk in the language the books were written in. Especially in the case of Shakespeare. I never read much of the books anyways. I read bits and pieces of the books, listened to the class discussions and the teacher's interpretations of the books. I would use that information for any of the tests we had in class. If I had to write a book report I tried to find the movie, and based my report on that. My English grades weren't great, but they were ok. Mostly B's and the occasional C. One night late in my senior year of high school I picked up my mom's book and started to read it. It was a John Grisham book, The Firm I think. I read it within a few nights. It was easy to read, entertaining and, best of all, I was sure there was no hidden meaning I was supposed to decipher in order to comprehend the story. It was at that point I realized that one could possibly read for the purpose of enjoyment.After I graduated high school I started to read a little more. I read mostly books my parents or brother gave to me. At some point I decided to read some of the classics that I avoided in high school. Dickens wasn't so bad when I took the time to read it. I still didn't touch Shakespeare. Some of Mark Twain's stories made me laugh. I realized I liked books with humor. I once asked my friend if he could recommend a good book for me to read. He suggested A Confederacy of Dunces. It was hilarious. Now it is one of my most recommended books. Books with plenty of comic relief tend to be my favorites. Now I read a little every night before I go to bed. I tend to alternate "good" books with less quality novels. I still like to read novels with low literary qualities and predictable endings. I consider them my television books. I read them for the same reasons people might watch a sitcom on TV. It is thoughtless entertainment. Sometimes it feels good to lay in my bed and read without having to think about anything at all.I have two children. They are five and two years old. Everyday I read to them. They have a book shelf in thier room that is full of books. If I see a book that I liked when I was a child, I get it for them. Their grandparents, aunts and uncles send them books all the time. We have a whole shelf dedicated to Dr. Seuss. They seem to have a favorite book for a month at a time, and then they move on to something else. The books I enjoy the least are the ones based on television cartoons or movies.However,if they bring them to me then I read them. I even try to make the voices of the cartoon characters as I read them. It isn't easy, but they laugh. Sometimes we will read book after book. I always start by asking them to bring me one book each, but somehow I end up reading six books instead of two. Sometimes they want me to read the same book five times in a row. They keep asking me to read it again and again. I never remember doing that as a child, but I hope their reading with me is an enjoyable experience that they will remember when they get older.