My Journey As A Reader

     I am an avid reader. I don't go a day without reading something. I can usually finish a book in about two to four days. And then I start a new one. I always take a book with me, no matter where I go. Now, I wasn't always like this.
     When I started school as a five year old, I was not a very good reader. I struggled with it and therefore did not like it. This lasted till I was a freshman in high school. The summer before my freshman year, my sister had me read the first two Harry Potter books and I fell in love. I fell in love with the Harry Potter books, and all books alike. I needed to read. I picked anything that looks interesting. I just had to read. Unfortunately, I did not always like what I read. I often got bored, disinterested, or did not want to finish what I read. But I loved reading so much that I put up with it. I read the classics because that is what I thought I should be doing, but I did not enjoy them. I read books from about every genre I knew of and was just not finding what I needed to.
     My senior year of high school, I had a new English teacher. She and I had a lot of the same taste in movies, music, and books. This teacher, J-Rad, as we called her, told me I might like the Twilight books. I had never heard of the Twilight books (mind you, this was six years ago so about no one had heard of them) and I didn't think I would like books about vampires. But, I decided to give them a try, what did I have to lose. So I read Twilight and fell in love. I just had to read New Moon and Eclipse (Breaking Dawn was not yet out). And that is when I found my genre. Young Adult Fiction.
     In my opinion, Young Adult Fiction (or YA) is the best genre there is. YA is always exciting, relateable, passionate, and so many more things. After twilight I soon discovered the Hush, Hush series, the Vampire Academy Series, the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and so many other fantastic books. My reading fervor only increased after that. I bought new YA books with any money I could spare. I begged my parents to buy me new books. I just had to read YA books. Jackson Pearce, Maggie Stiefvater, Becca Fitzpatrick, John Green, are some of my favorite YA authors and they are amazing. I only hope, someday, I can join their ranks and people like me will be adding me to their list of favorite YA authors.
     But just because you are not the best reader or you don't like reading, doesn't mean there isn't a reader inside of you. For me, it was finding my genre to make me into a reader. I believe a person needs to find the right book for them.