I realized today that I don't only have to talk about books and review them. I can talk about all things book related on this blog. Anything that pops into my head and I want to talk about, I can.
So today I decided to talk about being a bookworm while having dyslexia.
All and all I don't think there are a lot of difference between bookworms who have dyslexia as opposed to those of you who don't.
So today I'll just tell you about my experience as a dyslectic bookworm.
My sister and I are both dyslectic bookworms and I think for the most part we are just like all the rest. My sister can devour books of 800 pages in a day or two while it takes me about a week to read 500 pages. I love the font OpenDyslexic while my sister hates it. She likes her fonts as small as possible, I prefer them on the larger side. What I'm trying to say is that once we get going we are just like every other bookworm. What I do think is that it is a bit harder for us to get into reading. And this is why.
When we learned how to read at school, we didn't now I had dyslexia. This meant it was pretty hellish for me. I was always the slowest reader in the class and was always at least two levels lower than the other kids. And I have to say my teachers didn't handle the situation well. They were always pushing me to read books kids my age were supposed to read, but I didn't have those skills at that moment. And when I picked a book I could read they told me it wasn't good enough. That because of my age I should read something else and bigger.
The first time I read a story all by myself I was so proud of it I read it over and over again until I pretty much new it by hard. I wanted to impress my teachers so I told them the story. Their answer was soul crushing. They told me it wasn't really reading and that the book was to simple.
I was so sad it took me a long while to read for fun again.
Honestly I think this is where education fails us. Everything is so focused on reaching a certain reading level at a certain age that it takes all the fun out of it. I get that they want us to push our boundaries, but they are shaming you if you are not up to their standards and it ruins a lot of otherwise fun things. Not just reading.
Thankfully I have great parents. Both of my parents are fellow bookworms. And they never pushed me to read. If I wanted to read a book that was supposedly below my level I could and they never said I was too old for a book. Or too young for that matter. They let me figure things out on my own but were very supportive. My mom had a subscription on middle grade books at my level, lower then others of my year, but they were books I could read by myself. And every-time I was interested in a book my dad bought it for me.
I think it is largely thanks to them I am the booklover I am today. They let me discover that reading could be for fun at my own pace. And I know went through a similar experience.
Now we are no different from any other reader out there.
So although I do think that getting people with dyslexia to read for fun is harder because our experiences at school, once we do get going we don't really notice our dyslexia or feel different from the rest.
I speak purely out of my own experience and am in no way speaking for the whole community.
-E