My Secret Addiction

Terry Smith

Director of the UMES University Writing Center

My Secret Addiction   

Terry Smith, Director of the UMES University Writing Center

I have a confession:  for years, I have had a secret addiction.  And now, in case I have all kinds of illicit thoughts running through your minds, I will tell you:  my addiction is reading.   I always have one or more books underway, and now that I have a Kindle, it is all too easy to acquire more books when I finish with one.  I hear of a book, and I download the free sample.  I receive recommendations from friends, and I download the free sample.  I receive recommendations from Amazon, and I download the free sample.  And then, all too often, I buy one or more of those books.  As I tell my close friends, they seem to just “come through the air”; buying for an e-book reader is so much easier than going out to a store.  But I have to wonder: is my healthy addiction shared by my students?

I have had this addiction all my life.  Although I don’t remember learning to read, I remember starting school in first grade and reading all of the first-grade books and then, with a teacher who clearly believed in accommodating individual needs, reading all of the second-grade through fifth-grade books.  Once I got started, I couldn’t stop. And I remember going to the library to select more books for home as one of the highlights of my week.  I also remember being accused more than once by my family of “having my nose stuck in a book.”  I assume they wanted me to interact more with them.

When I was in high school, I was a member of a group of students who recruited a faculty advisor and formed the Literary Club.  Our goal, achieved by me and most of the others, was to read the 50 great classics of all time according to some list then published and discuss as many as possible in our group.  And so we launched into greats including Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, two of my favorites for reasons I don’t fully remember.  What was truly amazing was that this was totally a student initiative. 

Although I started college as a Spanish major, it is probably little surprise that I changed to an English major with a Spanish minor halfway through my freshman year.  There were practical reasons for the change, but surely my love of reading had something to do with it.  What might be more surprising is that I always wanted to specialize in writing rather than literature.  My undergraduate degree was in English Education, but I sought out graduate degrees in my chosen field of writing:  I earned a Master of Arts in Composition and a Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and Linguistics.  This is not a contradiction, however. Both relate to my love of language.  For without reading, what is the purpose of writing? 

What surprises me is how relatively uncommon a passion for reading or even an interest in reading is among college students today.  As Director of the Writing Center, I often tell my tutors and tutees that there is one way most likely to improve their writing.  Most believe that I’m going to tell them to write more, but the answer is to read more.  It is from reading that we gain not only knowledge about diverse places, people, and ideas but also a wealth of narrative techniques and language skills.  Further, when we have a book to read, we are never lonely or bored. 

Of course, this addiction to reading can come full circle.  I do remember launching an active campaign to make my grandson a reader when he spent the summer with me the year he was 5.  And was I ever successful: he loves reading!   I have been under a mandate from my now 15-year-old grandson, who read The Life of Pi this summer as a summer reading requirement for school, to finish the book before he would go with me to see the movie.  He says that there is no way the movie can be as rich as the book, and I’ll miss too much if I depend on the movie for this great work of fiction exploring culture, religion, and philosophy—not to mention incredible adventure: you might have seen the movie trailers with an Indian youth and a Bengal tiger on a lifeboat.  To be honest, now that I have finished my formal education, I usually read popular fiction, not classic literature, and I had motivational problems at first.  But, over Thanksgiving break, I finished reading The Life of Pi, and I am really grateful to Michael for insisting I read it.  It is a great book, and I highly recommend it to you.  And now I get to see the movie.

I know I am not totally alone in my addiction to reading here at UMES since I have had animated conversations about books with students both in the Writing Center and in my classes.  One of my Technical Writing students told me that she loves to read and is literally forcing herself not to start a new book, so she will focus on her coursework and not get “lost” in a book before the semester ends.  Oh, I know that feeling:  wanting to read when there are other tasks to complete. 

So, how about you?  Are there any other passionate readers out there?  Do any of you have any book recommendations for me?  After all, Winter Break is coming, and, though I have other tasks to complete, I will surely find many hours for my beloved addiction.  Or, better yet, stop by the Writing Center in Wilson 1107 to view our reading recommendations bulletin board and to add your own because reading is an addiction I want to share. 

UMES Family!

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The accuracy of references in this essay, (including all opinions, quotes, references,  proper names, dates, references to documents, literature, film etc.) are the responsibility of Terry Smith and have not been fact checked by the Real Life @ UMES Blog Team.

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