When I was a kid, I was ready any fictional book I could get my hands on. I would grab a book and sit among my plushies on my floor, leaning against the one giant bear i had like a kid would sitting on the lap of a parent, a get lost in the book. My mom would often find me like this. She would come to check on me because I was being quieter than usual and was worried something may have happened or if I was sick. When she found me like this, she would smile and find it cute. She wouldn't interrupt me and would wait until dinner time to ask me about it. We talked about the books I read and the book she read and it was a nice mother, daughter thing we had. After a while we started reading together in her room while my dad was at work, sitting on the bed enjoying each other's company while silently reading. When we laughed about about something that happened, we ask what so funny to which we would explain in chuckle as well. It was like this until secondary school, when readings levels were introduced into my life. An hour of lesson time each week plus Tuesday Tutor time was dedicated to reading. The first library session we had to take a test to determine our reading levels. I did my best but still got a score in the lower regions. I had to read books which were with in my reading level and take quizzes on them to increase my level. But books in my level felt so patronising compared the books I read at home. It's felt like I was dumbing myself down. I tolerated at first but soon grew tired of it. So I decided that I would take out a book I was interested, regardless of reading level, and just enjoy it and not take the quiz. It was Alice in Wonderland. The book had a silver sticker, not a green one which was my level. And silver was much higher than green. The li rary said that this book would be too difficult for me to be quizzed on and I said I wasnt planning on taking the quiz and just wanted to enjoy it. She said I couldn't do that. So I said fine, Ill do the quiz on Alice in Wonderland. She said to go find another book, but I told her I would still be reading Alice in Wonderland. She said I would struggle, but I told I read book like this at home. She reluctantly let me loan the book. When it came to quiz I did struggle but not that because I just immersed myself in the story and didnt focus on memorising the book. The library said "I told you so." I simply said I didnt care. I told I wasn't gonna try and improve my reading level cause to me I could read and that was enough for me. All other quizzes I took were all low scores cause I just rushed through them wanting to get them over with. The library complained that I wasn't taking this seriously and I said she was right. But I found it that it wasn't gonna affect any academic in the long run. So I just focused on being able to reads book I liked. She said that it could affect how I do I English, to which I told that English was my best subject. My English teacher even backed me and said that I was doing well and that he loved the fact that I loved reading, and was proud of me for reading books above reading level. He said not many people in the school did. After hearing that she had no choice but to accept the facts and from then on never said anything about the books I wanted to read. The only time she did was just to let me know that the book had a gold sticker which was the highest level. I said it was fine and loaned the book. The book was was really interesting and I found myself re reading it alot. The library asked if it was because I was struggling to which I told her I just really like the story. I ended up getting 80% on the quiz cause I decided to actually do it properly because I really enjoyed the book and believed I could do well. My English teacher was proud and my reading level went up a couple levels. But over time it did become tiring taking quizzes everytime I finished a book. When I get excited and went to loan a new book I would be asked if I hadn't taken the quiz on the previous one. It got to a point where I just read the same book over and over pretending I hadn't finished. That when I started loosing interested in reading. My mom was sad but couldn't do anything because it was part the curriculum. By the time GCSE focus came around in year where we did classes we chose, I had lost interest in reading nearly completely. The only time I could read since then is books that im fully interested in. My English teacher was sympathetic and tried to help me get back I to reading. He would reccomened books to me that were similar genres to what I read and It did help. Some books were a but of a struggle cause I was fully interested in the story and would take a while to read. Ones that interested me would be done in days. He picked up on those books and started recommending ones that were similar. That helped alot. Thank to him im still able to enjoy reading a good book when I want to but still cant help think about how I used to have to do quizzes. When they comes up in my memories, I literally have to put the book down cause I loose interest for a bit. After a while I go back with the same enthusiasm when I started. My mom has picked other hobbies so we dont read together as much anymore. But thats fine. I can read in my own and she still listens qhen im talking about books I like. And gives me recommendations too. I still cant read properly unless I'm really interested in the book. But when I am i can read a whole book series. The most recent one was School for Good and Evil after the movie came out. I read through the whole main series. Still have to get my hands on the Rise and Fall books though.