My Reading Habbits

Despite the advantages of reading books that entitle us to be informed, entertained, and enable us to expand our horizons and escape from our daily routine, people including me, still don’t regularly read on a continuous basis, and even if I do, there are factors that push me to do so, such as the reputation of the author the book belongs to or the genre of books that I get attracted to.

If asked to classify my book reading habits, I can honestly say they are not entirely the best and not poor either. I believe I could challenge myself if I start reading more books and make plans to finish reading them in a limited time. Sometimes, I will purchase a book, read some of it, and put it back in the bookcase and never pick it up again. When I’m in the bookstore, books look so attractive on the shelves, but that’s not the case when they are in my room. The reasons why probably they look good to me in the bookstore and push me to purchase them is may be due to their covers which look good, or may be because I want to be polite to an author that I know by buying his/her books. I also try to compete with my friends sometimes when they buy several books, and so I find myself obliged to do the same just to show I’m interested too. To be honest, the only time when I frequently read is during school semesters for the simple reason that some novels, textbooks and plays are a MUST to read and also because I feel I’m in the reading mood by spending many hours in the library revising notes, reading short stories etc…

There are many authors that I like reading their works and find it hard to put the book down before finishing it. When I’m in the reading mood, I do read not only for authors who write in English, but also for Francophone and Arab authors. One of my favorite English authors is Charles Dickens who is undoubtedly the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era; I recommend reading his novels to anyone who is keen on literature. Victor Hugo, the master of “Les Misérables” novel, is my favorite Francophone author. He was not only a novelist, but also a poet, Human rights activist and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic Movement in France. As for Arab authors, my favorite one is certainly the Egyptian Najeeb Mahfouz, who was the first Arab author to win the Noble Prize in literature in 1988. His works were translated to several languages and edited all the over the world.

Talking about these authors may provide a glimpse into my favorite genres of books which are novels and short stories. I like to read novels and short stories, but I prefer novels mostly because in reading short stories, it takes more intense concentration than many novels. With a novel, once you have a sense of the characters, you can go along with them for the ride. On the other hand, with short stories, one has to figure out a new set of characters in every story; that can seem like more “work” to me, but still short stories along with novels remain my favorite genres. I also like Dictionaries especially bilingual ones : English/Arabic and English/French because they allow me to look up any word I have difficulties understanding it in one language and find its meaning in another, and this for sure will enhance my vocabulary skills and fluency in these languages.

All in all, books remain important as anything else on earth and technology will never take over them. As for me, I’ve decided to commit myself to read at least an hour on a daily basis. By doing so, I believe it would be beneficial and enough for me to acquire a new vocabulary, use imagination and consequently improve my writing skills.