Why a good book is a secret door

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Original Gamer Girl

Original Gamer Girl

Actually, that title may be a little misleading.

My name is Amberlie Arave (pronounced R-V), I am 31 years old, and a senior, finishing up an English Studies Bachelors. Someday I’ll go back for my masters and maybe a PhD, but I really want to travel a little first, and pay off some of those pesky student loans! Right now, I live in Paradise with my kitty Sammi. I am the oldest of four kids (we are all over 25 now), and the first woman in my family to receive a degree.

I am a huge gamer, particularly into role-playing games, I am trying to clear all of the content in Dragon Age: Inquisition at the present time. I am also an avid artist, painting and drawing mainly. Although I am actually quite introverted, I love the outdoors, and am always looking for a new trail to hike (even if I am not overly confident in my ability to finish it), gardening, or just laying in the shade on a warm spring morning, or sitting on the porch watching the sunset with a single malt. Romantic eh?

I also consider myself a reader. Funny, because until the 6th grade, I was actually well below my level in reading. My twin brother (I am older, honestly, 3 mins older) has always been gifted and started reading at a very young age, albeit in order to play video games, since that was when the classic Nintendo came out. I really didn’t feel like there was a point to it if I couldn’t keep up with my brother. It was all in the right book. I had always enjoyed The Hobbit growing up, but never managed to read that far into it. Later, in the 6th grade my mom handed me the series my name came from (and a recent tv show on Mtv) and I haven’t gone anywhere without a book since. Today, I have read almost every piece of literature that JRR Tolkien has published, and dozens of related texts.

To me, being a reader is not only reading for pleasure, but the person needs to feel it is necessary for their happiness. Personally, I have some sort of reading material on me wherever I go. Even if I don’t think I will like the book, I will generally try most that are recommended to me. I don’t care much for ebooks, but I have used them when it was convenient. Reading could be social media, could be paper books, could be ebooks, zines, graphic novels, magazines, newspapers, even audio books, for the enjoyment and gain of knowledge. I would argue that someone who doesn’t enjoy reading in some form is rare, but not unheard of. Just because they don’t pick up a book doesn’t mean that they don’t spend hours on Facebook or The Onion, or even reading comics from Syonide and Happiness, and messages on Twitter. Arguably, I could even fathom that people who play video games that are more text heavy or story line based like RPGs could be considered readers too.

Well, that was a healthy rant, See you all in class!

Amberlie

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