Reading and Writing in Wonderland

I wrote this essay for my Creative Writing class this past semester about Reading and writing in my life. This is like an extension to my intro. Hope you learn something new about me :)

I am so thankful that I enjoy reading and writing. I know many who don’t like either one or both. I got into reading before writing, but enjoy them both for fun. The first time I was read to was when I was in kindergarten and my older sister would read to me and my younger brother on our sofa bed. She loved to read so she would read us picture books. My 4th grade teacher also read A Series of Unfortunate Events books 1 and 2 to my class, so I finished the rest on my own. I loved reading on my own since I was young. For example, I read Dr. Seuss' books for his rhymes and message and also poetry by Shel Silverstein.

As I got older, reading and writing became two of my favorite hobbies. I remember reading Mary-Kate and Ashley books and also Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Azkaban in 5th grade. I constantly made trips to the school library during my lunch periods throughout middle school, looking for interesting books and helping the librarian, who I eventually became friends with.

My favorite book genre is action/ adventure. Some of my favorite single books include The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkein, The Eighth Scroll by Laurence B. Brown, The Hunt for the Seventh by Christine Morton Shaw, Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed, and Wonder by R.J. Palacio. My favorite series include Echoes by Jamilah Kolocotronis, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, The Children of the Red King by Jenny Nimmo, and of course Harry Potter by J.K Rowling. I have come across new authors and genres like crime fiction and young adult thanks to recommendations by others and goodreads.com, which I highly recommend bookworms check out.

I’ve been loving this site since a friend told me about it back in 2011. You can keep track of as many books you’ve read from as far back or as current as you want. Users can also add books to their to-read list and update what they are currently-reading. In addition, you can rate, review, and recommend books as well as receive recommendations depending on the type of books you read and are on your shelves. You can enter giveaways or host your own, share you writing, take quizzes, challenge yourself to read a number of books in a year, make friends, and a lot more!

I go on goodreads.com daily (it is my FB ;) According to their site, I've read 157 books so far, have 17 shelves including favorites, children's books, Islamic books, self-help, etc., own 97+ books in my home library collection, and have 6 friends. More details of what I am up to book-wise, like what I am currently reading, can be found at http://www.goodreads.com/sabrinafatima Some of my book related goals consists of reading 50 book in 2013 and to give away some of my books to friends and/or book sales. In addition, I want to do a bookshelf "tour and decor" on my reading and writing blog and become a Barnes and Noble member soon.

Along with reading, I enjoy watching movies. Many of these movies are based off of books. Unlike some people I know, I don’t hate movies based off of books because of the lack of accuracy. Instead, I like to see the images I had in mind put to life by the directors. So it is rare for me to hate a movie that was based off a book I like or plan to read. Some of the movies that were inspired by books and that I like are the infamous Harry Potter series, The Chronicles of Narnia movies 1-3, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lighting Thief, and The Hunger Games. I look forward to continue watching Percy's adventures in the second movie as well as the second movie to The Hunger Games, both coming out in the near future. 

While I loved to read since I was young, and got into movies a few years ago, my interest in writing began when I was in 8th grade. My middle school librarian told me and some other students about a contest where we had to write a short story in Dr. Seuss style. Being a fan of Dr. Seuss's books, I started writing my own story. Others quit, but I liked mine so I finished it, illustrations and all, and sent it in. My entry, "The Purple Blurble," was about a curious boy going on a trip to learn about the extinction of blurbles after sneezles made life difficult for them. A few lines from my short story includes: "Well thank you for all the help and letting me understand/ The importance of all living beings, they each have a role to play like in a marching band/ We should assist all of God’s creations instead of breaking them apart/ I thank you again from deep within my heart.” The entire piece can be found on my reading and writing blog at sfraww.blogspot.com/2010/07/purple-blurble.html. To my surprise, I won 1st place in my category!

Winning 1st place for the first time in my life was very exciting. I found out the day I was invited to The Brownstone for participating in the contest. Being 1 of 10 winners, I had to read my writing out loud to the audience. I was nervous, but got through it. After all the readings, we had time to eat and take pictures. While I was eating a fruit salad, some people came up to congratulate me, like a school principal and my elementary school librarian. I received a certificate and a gift card to Borders, which came in handy for books to take on summer vacation to England and Bangladesh that summer of 2007.

Doing well enough to win a contest motivated and kept my interest in writing. Ever since then, I have been writing for fun and love it. I have entered more writing contests, written a poem to a friend, and another to my high school teachers. Two of my other poems were also published in my high school's literary magazine. In addition to writing for fun, I learned to enjoy writing for school assignments where I get to choose the topic of my interest. During my senior year in high school, I took a journalism class where I became the Editor of my high school's newspaper, The Torch, and wrote numerous articles and designed layouts. One of these, my editorial on teacher pay vs. student performance, won 1st place in opinion writing!

I like to share and get feedback on my writing, so in January 2013, I joined writing.com. Here, users can do both of what I was looking for. People give helpful reviews of one's writing and there are many opportunities to enter contests. Great tips for writers can also be found on this site. My writing can be found at http://Writing.Com/authors/knowledgeseekr

Another place I share my writing to the public is on my reading and writing blog. I started my blog in 2010 just to share my writing and also some tips I learned, but since December 2012, I decided to include book related posts. I try to consistently post every Sunday. Some of these blog posts are my writings, both for school and fun, like journal entries, poems, memoirs, and research papers. With regards to books, I try to put up book hauls, reviews, "tags," etc.

Islam is very important to me and my lifestyle so I try to incorporate my religion and complete way of life in my writing in whatever way I can. I want to finish an article I had started a long time ago on my Islamic recommendations to the youth. I also want to continue writing more poetry, which is my favorite type of writing. Intro. to Creative Writing class helped me write my first lengthy short story, so I want to brainstorm more ideas and get some started. In addition, I want to write more book reviews. Some books I want to review are Laurence B. Brown's The Eighth Scroll, The Returned, and The Zion Deception (once I read the latter) and The Game of Triumphs books 1 and 2 by Laura Powell because these are not mainstream books. All of these writings and reviews can be found on RAWW.

I still continue to read and write for fun as much as possible to this day. I journal daily and blog on Sundays. I also have a number of other blogs I manage weekly about Islam. Overall, I love literature, whether in the form of novels or creative writing. Since I love to read and write, I am majoring in English Writing as well as Elementary and Middle School Education. I hope to become a better and more frequent writer through my writing classes, journaling, blogging, and writing for fun at home. I also want to encourage young children to get into reading and writing from a young age, since both are needed for everything in life. God willing, I write a book in the future that many will like to read and recommend!