A Family of Non-Readers

The moment I saw the syllabus for this class I panicked and i am sure I was not the only one. I saw all of the papers and reading assignments and I wanted to drop the class immediately. I had no idea how I was going to survive in this class while taking another literature class (in Spanish), working, and helping out at home (which is two hours away). How will i do this? I was sitting in class thinking, I hardly ever read novels or write papers. I made three years through college and never had such a workload that intimidated me and it all boiled down to my reading history. I probably read maybe three or four books (give or take) for the fun of it in my grade school life. Yet everybody else in class talked about the books they read or planned to read soon. Why won't I read for fun?
I do not hate books nor love to watch television, so what am I doing with my time? Working. I grew up working around my country home, then when I was old enough I worked several jobs (at a time) while in high school. The only time I read a book was while in church, the good ole King James Version Bible. Other than that there was no other book I willingly picked up, sat, and read. That was the only book I ever saw my mom read and my siblings i never saw reading either. Everybody had a day full of chores, school work, etc. I look back and I wish that i had read more. I attempted to join a book club, read a book or two, and then stopped. But why? A family of non-readers that is.
My mom always encouraged me to study and that education was important, but i was never taught the joy of literature. Now that i have successfully survived the class i can find the joy in literature. Maybe for my future courses i will actually read the material because i may enjoy it. I doubted my success in this class but i was completely wrong. Maybe there is someone else in the class that felt intimidated the first day but now feels triumphant. Anywho we finally made it through the course!!!!! Yay!