Blog Post 2-Emma Neuerburg

I was actually very surprised at how much I really enjoyed this reading. Miller talks a lot about what she calls reading “wild”. I took this as being an adventurous and interested reader, someone who enjoys being a part of a book and the story. I find this something that is hard to do because of time, which is another thing she talked about. Balancing 18-21 units a semester, a part time job, extracurricular activities AND trying to cram in time for pleasure reading is such a challenging idea that many professors don’t seem to think about, or really care. When I was younger I went through a 5 year span of not enjoying reading, but it ended when I was in my sophomore year of high school. My older sister came up to me and suggested the Hunger Games series to me, and to be honest I only picked it up because I knew it was going to be turned into a movie. However, when I read it I fell in love with reading all over again.

My absolute favorite section of her first chapter was “Reading Emergencies”. Before reading this I had never really thought about how often I could be reading instead of aimlessly checking Instagram or Twitter, etc. When I’m waiting for class to start, or on my break at work are perfect times to have a book with me. This really struck so hard to me because this summer I spent 3 months in Germany where often times my phone wouldn’t work. During the beginning of the summer I had bought the books “Seriously…I’m Kidding” by Ellen degeneres, and “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed. So when I went to Germany I made sure to bring these books with me and boy did they come in handy!!! Trains in Germany are the most unreliable, and time wasting frustrations. Often times they would be cancelled or delayed and we would have no idea because we don’t speak German. During my hours long time sitting at a train station I would pull a book out from my backpack and get so much reading done. I would feel much more relaxed and at ease after I read that the shitty trains weren’t such a huge deal to me anymore.

I think it’s important to always have a book with you. In today’s world technology is EVERYWHERE. I don’t see it as much of a bad thing as my parents do, but it makes it so easy to forget about reading and practicing reading. Whenever I’m bored my automatic reaction is to pull out my phone or computer and just start “Social Media-ing” away. But, if I had a book with me, my life would be much less stressful. Miller’s ideas about the book has driven me to want to go to Barnes & Noble this weekend and pick out a book or two to just have with me in both my backpack and purse!