All Posts Tagged ‘Reading’

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A habit

October 12, 2014
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What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without reading a book (since learning how to read, of course)? Which book was it that helped break the dry spell?

My father gave me an advice when I was very young: read at least twenty minutes every day no matter how busy you are. Don’t let pass a day without reading a good book. Now it’s a habit for me. Read every day.

Dad was a Journalist, writer and Literature Teacher. He left us an extensive library. So we have plenty to choose among the classics and the XX Century authors. There are also a lot of good books to read out there. When I find myself with problems about what to choose I don’t mind to reread one of the great books I enjoyed the most.

About my early years, I remember being an avid reader of juvenile novels as the point to have serious problems to stop reading to study for my exams. Somehow I managed to succeed in my grades.

when I was 12 or 13 I had an operation in my leg because of a tumor in a bone. I spent three months at home, without go to school. My dad introduced me to great books and authors: The Pearl, The Old Man and the Sea, and many more… Since then, I’ve never stopped reading.

Reader’s Block.

 

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At the end of the day

April 11, 2014
9 comments

After a long day at work or school, what are your favorite ways to wind down and decompress?

After a long day at work, there is more work at home waiting to be done, so no chance to rest immediately and indulge in a wonderful evening.

For a long time I had an added problem. I worked till late at night almost all my life, so I had no time but to fix something simple to eat, do the dishes and go to bed, exhausted.

My best time was when I was working in San Francisco, CA. as a Stringer for a Spanish News Agency and a correspondent for a Spanish Magazine. Because of the different time zones I used to finish my reports early in the afternoon and I had plenty of time to relax after that. My home was near the Ocean Beach and I used to take a refreshing walk after work every day. Those were magnificent days.

Now the circumstances are very different. No beach. No different time zones. No free afternoons.

I think I don’t know exactly how to rest daily, and that’s a big problem. When I have some free time at the end of the day I like to read an interesting book or watch some entertaining TV show. I like to watch good TV series but there are only a few to choose. I’m not watching much TV now. Nothing that interests me. No time.

Now that I’m taking care of my ailing mom there is also difficult to find free time at the end of the day, because it’s then when she needs me more. I try to have good, relaxing moments with her. But it can be difficult. It depends on how she feels.

I find relaxing to write this blog every day even when I’m doing it in a hurry. It helps me occupy my mind in other things and it’s always a challenge.

 

via Have You Never Been Mellow? | The Daily Post.

 

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Reading and writing

April 2, 2014
10 comments

Which subject in school did you find impossible to master? Did math give you hives? Did English make you scream? Do tell!

When I was little I couldn’t master reading and writing. First, I didn’t know a word of Spanish because is not my motherly language. Second, I had a problem, I still have. For me right, left, up and down is all the same. I can’t distinguish one from another. I never knew with what hand I had to grab the pencil. There was no way for me to draw correctly the letters and numbers. P d b q were, still are, all the same to me. I had a mess in my mind of letters and numbers impossible to distinguish. Sometimes my handwriting only could be read in a mirror.

I was aware of my problem and I remember how I used to spend time making countless calculations to draw a letter or a number exactly the way it appeared on the chalkboard, only to take the wrong decision to my teacher desperation.

Today they would say I had some kind of dyslexia or directionality problem. Back then, they simply thought I was Incredible slow and probably stupid. I had to learn the hard way.

Thanks God I had at home my parents supporting me, helping me, and convincing me I was no stupid. I finally learned how to read and write despite my problems and became a journalist.

via Daily Prompt: Land of Confusion.
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Lectures and books

December 8, 2013
3 comments

What’s your learning style? Do you prefer learning in a group and in an interactive setting? Or one-on-one? Do you retain information best through lectures, or visuals, or simply by reading books?

Lately I think I retain best information through lectures I chose and reading books. A little old-fashioned I guess.

All depends on the subject and the teacher. Good teachers are the key. What I remember from my years at the University are not the styles but the teachers that left a deep impression in my life.

Those years have passed. but I didn’t stop learning. Learning from life mostly but also learning from teachers and books. To learn a language I definitely would prefer a group but in almost all other subjects I’m a do it by myself person so I would attend a lecture or read a book or follow an on-line method and experiment the results at home.

Daily Prompt: Learning Style.
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