What are your three favorite things about your book?

I am now reading the book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin which was written in the early 1800s. Even though it was written almost two hundred years today, it is still read and enjoyed today. The romance between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth is one of my favorite things about this story and is probably why the book is still popular today. I do not usually enjoy romance novels but the “prejudice” and “pride” that Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth both have towards each other makes the story so intriguing. They are so similar both have a great deal of pride that gets in the way of letting themselves like the other. Both are also prejudice. Elizabeth thinks that Mr. Darcy is stuck up because of his wealth, and he dislikes her family because they are a bit forward. The tension is quite interesting. Another thing I really liked about this book is the dialog. It is so civil and proper. It is nothing like how we speak today, yet they still have ways of making snide remarks in witty ways and always in a proper manner. The third thing I find appealing about this book is the relationship between the father and mother. Although they squabble almost constantly and are very formal in the way they address each other and speak, you can tell that they love each other. Even though this story is nearly two centuries old, it is easy to relate to the attraction of two people from different social backgrounds, who really aren’t that different on the inside.

“Good literature substitutes for experience which we have not ourselves lived through.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This quote relates to Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl, by letting the reader experience what it must have been like to go from being a young girl living a carefree life to one living a life of fear and uncertainty. You glimpse what Jewish people in hiding went through during the Holocaust. Although hopefully we will never experience something like this in today’s world, it allows us to feel empathy for those people who did go through all the terrors of it and to see human side to the numbers of people who died. It also relates in another way to the book I’m reading, because throughout her diary Anne continues to write about different books she’s read and how books and studying are the only things that seem to make time pass in the Secret Annex. Anne realizes the escape that books can bring and find comfort in reading.

“Good literature substitutes for experience which we have not ourselves lived through.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn

I think Alexander Solzhemitsyn means that we can live and relate to experiences that we read in books. We can experience things through reading that we may never have the opportunity to do ourselves in real life, whether it be traveling to a faraway place or even an imaginary place, or being a part of the past or the future. Books can take us to different places, people, and even to a different time. They help us pass time and escape from the world around us. Good literature helps us to connect to the characters we read about.

I am currently reading The Diary of Anne Frank which is an actual dairy written by a young, Jewish girl during WWII. The diary was a present for her thirteenth birthday and covers her life from the time she is thirteen until she is fifteen when her family is discovered and taken to a Nazi concentration camp.
1. One song that came to mind when thinking about this assignment was “World” by Five for Fighting. The beginning of the song reminds me of how she gets the diary as a gift and how much potential it has. It also reminds me of how her diary shaped history.
2. I also thought “You’re my Best Friend” by Queen would be well suited to this story because she names her diary Kitty and at one point writes that Kitty is the only one she can truly confide in. Many times she writes things to Kitty that she tells no one else.
3. “Drops of Jupiter” by Train also makes me think of Anne Frank. She is fresh and idealistic and her writing helps us to see what it is like to grow from a girl to a young woman. Even under such stressful circumstances, she still thinks and worries about things that many girls think about and reminds us all that “there’s time to change” and “room to grow.”
4. Another song that reminds me of this book is “Imagine” by John Lennon. It makes you think about the war, the hatred, and how people don’t get along which goes with the wartime setting of the story.
5. One other song that comes to mind is a song that I remember from when I was in Catholic school. We used to sing this song called “I Believe in the Sun” in church. The music is by Carey Landry, but there was a footnote that said the lyrics came from words scratched on a wall in a concentration camp. For some reason that footnote sticks in my head. When I think of what happened to Anne and her family I think of the faith these people must have had even in such unimaginable conditions.

Wilson Rawls does this in Where the Red Fern Grows. Rawls chooses to write in first person which gives you the feeling that the main character, Billy, is telling the story directly to you. He draws you into this story about a boy and his extraordinary love for his dogs by making you feel as if you are right there with Billy. He takes an ordinary event in a child’s life, wanting a pet, and allows the reader to become part of it. He builds the relationship between Billy and his dogs from the time they are puppies, to becoming champion hunters. As the story comes to the climax, with Old Dan and Little Ann protecting Billy from an attack by a cougar, you sense that Old Dan and Little Ann aren’t going to make it. Yet, they have become a part of you and you hope for the best, thinking these loyal best friends can’t be parted. Rawls brings the story full circle when Billy visits the graves of his dogs just as his family is about to move away from the Ozarks, and relates the legend of the red fern planted by angles that signifies a sacred place. As a reader, you are changed by having shared the experience.

I think the speaker, C. S. Lewis, meant that literature gives depth to our lives. Literature fills voids within our lives and makes life worth living. It takes what may seem ordinary, and gives us a new perspective. Good literature helps us to look more deeply at ourselves through the characters that an author brings to life. We learn more about who we are and how we feel when we empathize with the characters.

I finnished my book... What should I do now?