1st Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

Reading may "transform you in many ways" and this has been true with me... sometimes, but what I have noticed is that reading is a sort of stress reliever. When I am loaded with homework, or have a big test the next day, sometimes I just stop what I am doing and read.
Over the course of the first quarter, I have read 10 books, ranging from a variety of genres anywhere from realistic fiction to fantasy. Some of the many books that I have read this quarter are...

• "The Endgame"
• "The Rule of Three"
• "An Abundance of Katherines"
• "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"

Again, these are only a few of the books that I have read SO FAR, and this has been at a higher amount then I have been reading last year. I think this is mainly because my 8th grade English teacher always assigned 20 minutes of reading each night, and did not let us have class time either. This made me feel as though reading was a burden and just another thing to check off on my to-do list. Most of the books that I have read are at a good reading level for me this year. I think that some of the books could be more challenging, but have other aspects in the book that really compelled me to read them, such as in the novel, "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl", the actual reading level was not hard, but I liked the humor aspect of the book and this was probably the book that I enjoyed the most over the quarter, because of this. I find that my particular taste in reading is interesting because I mainly enjoy science fiction novels, yet some of my favorite books are realistic fiction, and as you may know, these 2 genres are not alike.
Even though this quarter has been great, I think there is still plenty of room to improve. Some of my future goals are to read AT LEAST two more books then I did this quarter. (So instead of reading 10 books, I now want to read 12) Also, I want to expand the variety of genres of the books that I am reading. I want to expand more into non-fiction and historical fiction because I have not really read anything of these two genres.
Lastly, I want to discuss my reflection on "spiritual reading". I do think that I had fairy good deep reading. Some of the times that I think I had deep reading would be during the books, "The Rule of Three" and "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl", because these books have really shown me how luck my life is. Going to a good school, NOT having my world be tossed around to where I practically live in a wasteland, having a family that cares about me. Overall, the reading that I have done over the first quarter has been very impactful and has changed me.