Jonathan Pawlowicz
English 250
11 January 2017
There are specific times in my life where I had the best experience with books and literacy. As a child, my father read to me every night before bed. Around the 9th grade, I discovered TED, a website where intelligent people talk about their life’s work in less than 15 minutes. These videos cover everything from the fight against STDs to how to become a computer hacker. However, my favorite experience that I would like to share is when I fell in love with books in the 11th grade.
When I was only a few years old, around 5, my father started telling me stories from the Bible. This would not have interested me if they were from the 11-point font books that fit in the palm of somebody’s hand. This book was as big as a coloring book and had pictures everywhere with hand-picking stories straight from the Bible. Every night would tell me a story from the book, called the Children’s Bible. There were stories of Moses, and Noah, and David and Goliath. I loved this time with my father, and it rapidly evolved to other books, such as the Magic Treehouse series, and eventually steered me towards TED videos.
TED videos were, and still are, one of my favorite ways to waste the day away while still feeling productive. Watching a handful of TED talks to me is my equivalent to binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy, it is addicting and impossible to stop once initiated. Their fountain of different topics makes it so that I will never run out of videos to watch. With TED talks, I have learned about nanotechnology, been inspired to learn a new language, learned how to become a better listener, and the list never ends. It was these stories that lead me to the book that made me fall in love with reading.
Nothing is more addicting than an amazing book. I knowledge was Nicotine, a book would be a cigarette. The one book that I blame for getting me hooked is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I could not put this book down. The reason I couldn’t put it down is because of how many of his examples I found in my everyday life. This book led me to surge forward in my pursuit of knowledge and enjoyment of good books, such as books written by Malcom Gladwell.
All my literary experiences have led me towards my next experience and they have always led me to better places in life. Reading The Children’s Bible with my father taught me that reading is fun. TED talks taught me about compassion and many other life factors. Finally, my book addiction taught me to sit back and relax every once in a while to just enjoy life.