The initial splurges of thoughts definitely helped my mind organize what I was attracted to in reading: immersion into another world. I came up with four different beginnings to my piece until I landed on one that I felt had the experience of immersion most accurately described without directly saying it.
The essay was a lot harder to write than I thought it would be. Once I got going on an idea though the words practically jumped their way out of my mind and onto the screen. I found it easiest to go chronologically through what I remember of reading. I was definitely surprised at how most of my memories of reading boiled down to five main books/series: Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Bone, Redwall, and Warriors.
” I don’t remember the specific moment it happened, nor do I quite know why, but at some point in the latter half of my junior year at high school I felt a yearning for something familiar. Among my thoughts of schoolwork and becoming an adult, a desire to travel back to the moments of childlike freedom snuck into my daily consciousness. This craving led me back to my bookshelf, and, over the course of several months, I traveled back to the worlds of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Redwall, and –most fondly– Bone.” – Me (Isaac Gazmararian)
A quick note on the visual aid: the drawing is supposed to be my experience reading Harry Potter, as I’m transporting into the pages of the book to the grounds of Hogwarts.
While writing the essay I was forced to strike an overarching structure to my reading and my thoughts about reading. And now that I’m done with it, all I want to do now is read another book… and get lost in another world.
Isaac Gazmararian 