Being a bookworm with dyslexia

I have always loved books and reading. My parents used to get me a new Jacqueline Wilson book as an incentive to get me to do chores and homework as a child. Therefore when I was officially diagnosed with Dyslexia when I was 15, it came as a shock to everyone as I was always known for having my head in a book.

According to the NHS, Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing. This doesn’t sound like something that goes hand in hand with recreational reading, yet I love it. It can sometimes be hard for me to understand the words I am reading but being able to escape to a new world or be sucked into a beautiful romance makes it worth it.

Technology has made reading even easier for me. Even though I love reading physical books and still do occasionally, with services like Kindle I can edit the size and the font of the words making it easier for me to follow without them looking jumbled. There are also features such as Word-wise which gives some definitions above words as you read. This is helpful because even though I may know the words, the spelling may not look familiar.

With all this available and more, I feel able to enjoy my hobby. Although it may take significantly longer to read the same book as my friends, we still can talk about our favourite parts. I may not be able to read 100 books in a year but the 25 that I do, I know I will enjoy (even if the book is bad).

Therefore, don’t let things you can’t change stop you from doing things you love, sometimes it makes you love them more.